Electronic Structure Review Flashcards

Flashcards covering key concepts in electronic structure and related topics for exam preparation.

What are the two fundamental ways of generating light mentioned in the lecture?

1) Heat an object up to glow (Incandescent lights), 2) Pass an electrical current through a gas (Fluorescent lights).

What is the relationship between wavelength and frequency of light?

Wavelength and frequency are inversely related; as wavelength decreases, frequency increases.

What is the formula for calculating the speed of light?

c = λν, where c is the speed of light, λ is wavelength, and ν is frequency.

What does the principal quantum number (n) indicate?

It determines the energy of an electron and can be any positive integer: 1, 2, 3, 4,…

What is the angular momentum quantum number (ℓ)?

ℓ defines subshells within a shell and can take integer values from 0 to n-1.

How many orbitals are in an s subshell?

There is 1 orbital in an s subshell.

What does the magnetic quantum number (mℓ) dictate?

mℓ dictates the orientation of orbitals in subshells.

What is meant by quantum mechanics in the context of electronic structure?

Quantum mechanics explains the behavior of electrons and asserts that they are organized into groups and subgroups, rather than being randomly distributed.

How is the energy order of electron filling in atoms established?

Electrons fill the lowest available energy subshells in order: 1s, 2s, 2p, 3s, 3p, 4s, 3d, etc.

What is the Pauli exclusion principle?

No two electrons in an atom can have the same set of four quantum numbers.

What characterizes the unique line spectrum of each element?

Each element emits light at specific wavelengths, resulting in a unique line spectrum.

In terms of ionization energy, which element has a higher IE: Ca or Sr?

Ca has a higher ionization energy than Sr because it is located above Sr on the periodic table.

How do valence electrons relate to an atom's group number?

For main group elements, the number of valence electrons corresponds to the group number.

What setup is used for calculating a practical example with light frequencies and energy?

Using the formulas c = λν and Ephoton = hν for calculations involving light's frequency and energy.

What is the abbreviated electron configuration for Sodium (Na)?

[Ne]3s1.

What notable exception is there to the filling of electron subshells?

The electron configuration for silver (Ag) is [Kr]5s14d10 instead of the expected [Kr]5s24d9.

What is periodic trend-atomic radius?

Atomic radius increases as you move down a group and decreases across a period due to increased nuclear charge.

How does the position of an element affect its size within the periodic table?

Elements to the left of a period are larger; elements lower in a group are larger due to added electron shells.

What are valence electrons?

Valence electrons are the electrons in the outermost shell that are responsible for chemical bonding.