How to find electronic configuration?
Answers
Answer:
1 Find your atom's atomic number. Each atom has a specific number of electrons associated with it. Locate your atom's chemical symbol on the periodic table. The atomic number is a positive integer beginning at 1 (for hydrogen) and increasing by 1 for each subsequent atom. The atom's atomic number is the number of protons of the atom – thus, it is also the number of electrons in an atom with 0 charge.
2
Determine the charge of the atom. Uncharged atoms will have exactly the number of electrons as is represented on the periodic table. However, charged atoms (ions) will have a higher or lower number of electrons based on the magnitude of their charge. If you're working with a charged atom, add or subtract electrons accordingly: add 1 electron for each negative charge and subtract 1 for each positive charge.
For instance, a sodium atom with a +1 charge would have an electron taken away from its basic atomic number of 11. So, the sodium atom would have 10 electrons in total.
A sodium atom with a -1 charge would have 1 electron added to its basic atomic number of 11. The sodium atom would then have a total of 12 electrons.
3 Memorize the basic list of orbitals. As an atom gains electrons, they fill different orbitals sets according to a specific order. Each set of orbitals, when full, contains an even number of electrons. The orbital sets are:
The s orbital set (any number in the electron configuration followed by an "s") contains a single orbital, and by Pauli's Exclusion Principle, a single orbital can hold a maximum of 2 electrons, so each s orbital set can hold 2 electrons.
The p orbital set contains 3 orbitals, and thus can hold a total of 6 electrons.
The d orbital set contains 5 orbitals, so it can hold 10 electrons.
The f orbital set contains 7 orbitals, so it can hold 14 electrons.
The g, h, i and k orbital sets are theoretical. No known atoms have electrons in any of these orbitals. The g set has 9 orbitals, so it could theoretically contain 18 electrons. The h set would have 11 orbitals and a maximum of 22 electrons, the i set would have 13 orbitals and a maximum of 26 electrons, and the k set would have 15 orbitals and a maximum of 30 electrons.
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