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Shells of electrons are named according to a system of letters. s,p,d, and f represent the four major subshells that electrons can occupy. However unlimited other subshells can house additional electrons, which are given the letter representation of h-z.
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A p subshell
consists of three orbitals and can therefore accommodate a total of six electrons.
The first two electrons go into the 1s subshell, the next two go into the 2s subshell and the last electron goes into the 2p subshell.
The ground state electron configuration of a boron atom is therefore: B: 1s2 2s2 2p1. We can also use an Orbital Diagram to show electrons are distributed in the various orbitals within the various subshells, but first we need to consider the Pauli Exclusion Principle.

An electron shell may be crudely thought of as an orbit followed by electrons around an atom nucleus. Because each shell can contain only a fixed number of electrons, each shell is associated with a particular range of electron energy, and thus each shell must fill completely before electrons can be added to an outer shell. The electrons in the outermost shell determine the chemical properties of the atom (see Valence shell). For an explanation of why electrons exist in these shells see electron configuration.[1]

The electron shells are labelled K, L, M, N, O, P, and Q; or 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7; going from innermost shell outwards. Electrons in outer shells have higher average energy and travel further from the nucleus than those in inner shells, making them more important in determining how the atom reacts chemically and behaves as a conductor, etc, because the pull of the atom's nucleus upon them is weaker and more easily broken.

Each shell is composed of one or more subshells, which are themselves composed of atomic orbitals. For example, the first (K) shell has one subshell, called "1s"; the second (L) shell has two subshells, called "2s" and "2p"; the third shell has "3s", "3p", and "3d"; and so on.[3] The various possible subshells are shown in the following table:

Subshell label l Max electrons Shells containing it Historical name
s 0 2 Every shell sharp
p 1 6 2nd shell and higher principal
d 2 10 3rd shell and higher diffuse
f 3 14 4th shell and higher fundamental
g 4 18 5th shell and higher
h 5 22 6th shell and higher
i 6 26 7th shell and higher

The first column is the "subshell label", a lowercase-letter label for the type of subshell. For example, the "4s subshell" is a subshell of the fourth (N) shell, with the type ("s") described in the first row.
The second column is the azimuthal quantum number of the subshell. The precise definition involves quantum mechanics, but it is a number that characterizes the subshell.
The third column is the maximum number of electrons that can be put into a subshell of that type. For example, the top row says that each s-type subshell ("1s", "2s", etc.) can have at most two electrons it it.
The fourth column says which shells have a subshell of that type. For example, looking at the top two rows, every shell has an s subshell, while only the second shell and higher have a p subshell (i.e., there is no "1p" subshell).
The final column gives the historical origin of the labels s, p, d, and f. They come from early studies of atomic spectral lines.
Although it is commonly stated that all the electrons in a shell have the same energy, this is an approximation. However, the electrons in a subshell do have exactly the same level of energy,[4] with later subshells having more energy per electron than earlier ones. This effect is great enough that the energy ranges associated with shells can overlap (see Valence shells and Aufbau Principle).

Each s subshell holds no more than two electrons
Each p subshell holds no more than six electrons
Each d subshell holds no more than ten electrons
Each f subshell holds no more than fourteen electrons
Therefore, the K shell, which contains only an s subshell, can hold up to 2 electrons; the L shell, which contains an s and a p, can hold up to 2+6=8 electrons; and so forth. The general formula is that the nth shell can in principle hold up to 2n2 electrons.

Although that formula gives the maximum in principle, in fact that maximum can only be achieved (by known elements) for the first four shells (K,L,M,N). In fact, no known element has more than 32 electrons in any one shell.[5][6] This is because the subshells are filled according to the Aufbau principle. The first elements to have more than 32 electrons in one shell would belong to the g-block of period 8 of the periodic table. These elements would have some electrons in their 5g subshell and thus have more than 32 electrons in the O shell (fifth principal shell).



NAMING SUBSHELLS:
NAMING SUBSHELLS:

Revision as of 22:13, 29 October 2009

Shells of electrons are named according to a system of letters. s,p,d, and f represent the four major subshells that electrons can occupy. However unlimited other subshells can house additional electrons, which are given the letter representation of h-z.

NAMING SUBSHELLS: S=Sharp P=Peanut D=Diffuse F=Fundamental G=Gladiator H-Z are unnamed at this time.