How do electron configurations affect properties and trends of a compound?

1 Answer
Chuck W.
Mar 19, 2014

The most important consequence of electron configurations is the number of bonds that an atom can form to other atoms.

Example:
An oxygen atom has a 2p^4 configuration in the valence shell, which means that two electrons are unpaired, and it can form bonds to two other atoms (e.g., H_2O) or two bonds to one other atom (e.g., O_2).

Carbon has a 2s^2 2p^2 electron configuration (2 unpaired electrons), and in this configuration it can bind to two other atoms (e.g., CH_2 radical). But another low-energy configuration, 2s^1 2p^3, has 4 unpaired electrons and can bind to 4 other atoms (e.g., CH_4). which is usually much more energetically favorable.

There are other consequences of electron configurations that lead to specific spectroscopic and magnetic properties, but bonding is the most important.

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