Chemistry Experience 5 - Electrons in Atoms

Electron configurations

the way electrons are arranged in various orbitals around the nuclei of atoms

Spin

property of electrons that is either clockwise (spin-up) or counterclockwise (spin-down) orientation. It is the up vs down arrows on the electron configuration chart

energy vs stability

more energy = less stability and vice versa

the construction worker has more energy being this high off the ground, but much less stabilty. once he falls, he splats on the ground and is very stable and also porbably dead.

example: iron electron configuration

has 26 electrons

1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 4s2 3d6

valence electrons

electrons in the outermost energy shell of an atom

Noble Gas Configurations

All of the noble gasses are on the very right side and they all have full octets. anything past them has at least a full octet of what they have plus a few odd ones in the next subshell on top.

noble gas configuration example (silicon)

silicon Si is 14 so it’s electron configuration is 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p2

in noble gas configuration, the noble gas directly preceding it (periodic table read left to right top to bottom) is NEON

written as: [Ne] 3s2 3p2

because Neon is 10 so it includes everything but the last 4 e’s

electron dot structures

show number of valence electrons as dots around the element