Question

what is SPDF in chemistry?

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).

Answer 2

So for example,
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).



a hydrogen atom with one electron would be denoted as

1s1

- it has one electron in its 1s orbitala lithium atom with 3 electrons would be

1s22s1

fluorine with 7 electrons would be

1s22s23p5

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.