ELECTRONIC STRUCTURES

This page explores how you write electronic structures for atoms using s, p, and d notation. It assumes that you know about simple atomic orbitals - at least as far as the way they are named, and their relative energies. If you want to look at the electronic structures of simple monatomic ions (such as Cl^-, Ca²⁺ and Cr³⁺), you will find a link at the bottom of the page.

	Important!  If you haven't already read the page on atomic orbitals you should follow this link before you go any further.
The electronic structures of atoms Relating orbital filling to the Periodic Table
	Note: On some screens the V for vanadium (element 23) may look a bit like a Y. This isn't a mistake, but an effect of converting my original diagram into a lower quality gif image for efficient web use.
UK syllabuses for 16 - 18 year olds tend to stop at krypton when it comes to writing electronic structures, but it is possible that you could be asked for structures for elements up as far as barium. After barium you have to worry about f orbitals as well as s, p and d orbitals - and that's a problem for chemistry at a higher level. It is important that you look through past exam papers as well as your syllabus so that you can judge how hard the questions are likely to get. This page looks in detail at the elements in the shortened version of the Periodic Table above, and then shows how you could work out the structures of some bigger atoms. To continue reading click on the link below: http://www.chemguide.co.uk/atoms/properties/elstructs.html#top