Sublevels and Orbitals

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Sublevels and Orbitals

Principal energy levels are broken down into sublevels. Theoretically there are an infinite number of sublevels, but you should only be concerned with 4 of them.

Each sublevel is assigned a letter. The four you need to know are s (sharp), p (principle), d (diffuse), and f (fine). So, s,p,d & f.

The principal energy level only holds that many sublevels.

Principal Energy Level	# of Sublevels	sublevels
1	1	1s
2	2	2s 2p
3	3	3s 3p 3d
4	4	4s 4p 4d 4f
5	5	5s 5p 5d 5f 5g

Yes, the 5th energy level has a 5g but you will not have to use it

The number of electrons in each sublevel

sublevel	# of electrons in each sublevel
s	2
p	6
d	10
f	14
g	18

Maximum number of electron in an energy level (2n²)

Principal Energy Level (n)	sublevels	electrons	total electrons
1	1s	2	2
2	2s 2p	2 + 6	8
3	3s 3p 3d	2 + 6 +10	18
4	4s 4p 4d 4f	2 + 6 + 10 + 14	32
5	5s 5p 5d 5f 5g	2 + 6 + 10 + 14 + 18	50

or written like this 2-8-18-32-50

Sublevels are broken down into orbitals

an orbital holds 2 electrons

sublevel	# of electrons in each sublevel	# of orbitals	Names of each orbital
s	2	1	s
p	6	3	p_z p_xp_y
d	10	5	d_z² d_xzd_yzd_xyd_x²-y²
f	14	7	f_z³f_xz²f_yz²f_xyzf_z(x²-y²)f_x(x²-3y²)f_y(3x²-y²)
g	18	9

on to electron configurations

back to Atomic Structure Links

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