What is the electron configuration of tungsten?

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What is the electron configuration of tungsten?

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Answer 1 · 2017-10-23T17:03:49

Tungsten has a regular electronic configuration. Being in period $6$ $6$ and column $6$ $6$ , we expect it to have a $d^{4}$ $d^4$ configuration and it sure does.

$[X e] 5 d^{4} 6 s^{2}$ $[Xe] 5d^4 6s^2$

But unlike what you may think, this IS an exception to the Aufbau Principle. Consider the data from Appendix B.9:

Data from Appendix B.9 of Inorganic Chemistry by Miessler, Fischer, and Tarr

The $6 s$ $6s$ orbital of tungsten being slightly above the $5 d$ $5d$ orbitals (by about $0.24 eV$ $"0.24 eV"$ ) makes it so that it is OK for the $6 s$ $6s$ electrons to be paired without too much of a loss of stability, even though it goes against the Aufbau Principle to favor pairing an electron in the highest-energy orbital.

The fact that tungsten has this configuration follows from the $5 d$ $5d$ and $6 s$ $6s$ orbitals being large enough to hold electron density fairly well, which stabilizes the paired electron enough.

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What is the electron configuration of tungsten?

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