Question

what are s p d f orbitals???

Answer 1

s, p, d, f and so on are the names given to the orbitals that hold the electrons in atoms. These orbitals have different shapes (e.g. electron density distributions in space) and energies (e.g. 1s is lower energy than 2s which is lower energy than 3s; 2s is lower energy than 2p).


So for example,

a hydrogen atom with one electron would be denoted as 1s11sX1 - it has one electron in its 1s orbitala lithium atom with 3 electrons would be 1s2 2s11sX2 2sX1fluorine has 9 electrons which would be 1s2 2s2 2p51sX2 2sX2 2pX5

Again, as we read from left to right the energy of the orbital increases and the superscript shows the number of electrons in the orbital.

Answer 2

between the shells K L M N the sub shells present these subshells are called S P D F