1.3B Orbital Diagrams and Electron Configs

Electron orbitals arranged by energy

Order for filling electron orbitals

Electron Configurations and the Periodic Table

Electron configurations can be written using the periodic table

Steps

1. Start at H

2. Move through the rows, top to bottom, left to right until you get to your given element

3. Each box adds one electron

4. Electrons go in orbital listed for that row

Electron Configuration Exceptions

1. Chromium (24 electrons)

Chromium takes on this configuration because a half-filled orbital has extra stability.

2. Copper (29 electrons)

Copper takes on this configuration because a totally filled orbital has extra stability.