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Orbitals in subshells

How many s p d f orbitals constitute each subshell

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Depends on the element.

I kid you not - five minutes before the module 1 AQA Chemistry exam when I sat it, the girl next to me asked "What's a p orbital?"

My jaw hit the floor.

Reply 2

StudyingHelp

Subshells are S, P , D AND F.

You only need to know S AND P if you are ocr.

Orbitals are a cloud of electron density where it is possible to find electrons ( 2 to be precise)
In the S subshell there are 2 electrons... So consists of one orbital.
P Subshell has 6 electrons....So consists of 3 orbitals (3 x 2) X Y AND Z all shaped like dumbbells on the axis mention (X y and Z)

The other two, although you don't need to know.... I.e D subshell contains 10 electrons so 5 orbitals.

Reply 3

7253567

Thank you

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Reply 4

username913907

Original post by Mimir

Depends on the element.

I kid you not - five minutes before the module 1 AQA Chemistry exam when I sat it, the girl next to me asked "What's a p orbital?"

My jaw hit the floor.

There are exactly the same (infinite) set of orbitals for each element, it is the occupancy and the differing energy of the orbitals (due to different nuclear charge) that distinguishes them.
We know the unoccupied orbitals still exist (e.g. the 4s in Hydrogen) as we can excite electrons into it from lower occupied orbitals with light.

Original post by Trouty97

How many s p d f orbitals constitute each subshell

If the shell contains orbitals of this type then there are ..... S=1, P=3, D=5, F=7, each orbital can hold a maximum of 2 electrons which must be paired with antiparallel spins to satisfy the pauli exclusion principle.
Now not all of these orbitals exist for each level. For the 1st shell only the S exists, then then S and P for the 2nd, S,P,D for the 3rd....... You can do the rest! You end up adding an extra type each type, so you get the g orbitals, although they are pretty insignificant in any chemistry.

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Reply 5

saurabhrai

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"; the fourth shell has "4s", "4p", "4d" and "4f"; the fifth shell has "5s", "5p", "5d", and "5f" and can theoretically hold more but the "5f" subshell. The simple names s orbital, p orbital, d orbital and f orbital refer to orbitals with angular momentum quantum number ℓ = 0, 1, 2 and 3 respectively.