Atomic Subshells

What are the 4 subshells in an atom called and what are the electron configuration for all 118 elements?

They are called s, p, d and f (these are shorthands for names given to the series of spectral lines they created - s is short for “sharp”, p is short for “principal”, d is short for “diffuse” and f is short for “fundamental”)

It would take a long time to write out all the electronic configurations of all the elements, but working out an element’s electron configuration from its position on the periodic table is quite a straightforward thing to do. It is best illustrated with examples and so I’d look here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hwqLCwgo6SU

(edited 1 month ago)

Reply 2

Kevin Le

Thanks for your answer.

From Scandium onwards, how do the electron configurations differ?

(edited 1 month ago)

Reply 3

TypicalNerd

Original post by Kevin Le

Thanks for your answer.
From Scandium onwards, how do the electron configurations differ?

When you refer to the differences past scandium, I presume you refer to the 3d-subshell beginning to fill out and it being full by the time you reach copper (which “sacrifices” one of its 4s electrons to fill out 3d, giving it a configuration of [Ar] 4s^1 3d^10 - this is at least in part due to something called exchange energy, which is introduced in undergraduate level chemistry. Chromium behaves similarly for similar reasons).

The d-subshell that is most recently filled out is on a quantum shell of a principal quantum number that is 1 less than the period the element is on and only shells with quantum numbers greater than, or equal to 3 can have a d-subshell.

To really understand why electron shells fill out as they do, you need to look at radial distribution functions etc. These are also first taught in undergraduate level chemistry (and maybe physics, but I wouldn’t know for definite).