Question

What about degeneracy of 2p orbitals in a magnetic field?

Answer 1

The reason is that the full 1s shell will shield the 2p more than the 2s from the coulomb attraction of the nucleus. (The 2s penetrates more to the vicinity of the nucleus.)

Atomic orbital energies:

The number of orbitals in a shell is the shell number squared. Look at carbon atoms.

The valence shell is the second one, n=2. It has 4 orbitals, 2s 2px 2py 2pz. In the atom’s ground state, 2 electron go into the s (because it is lower in energy) then the other two valence electrons go into different p orbitals (because the p orbitals are degenerate).

In the case of carbon the valence shell electrons can all be involved in bonding because the s and p orbitals can mix even though they are non-degenerate. Instead of just s and p orbitals, we talk about hybrid orbitals sp or sp2 or sp3.

Answer 2

Answer: There are no degenerate orbitals

Explanation: