In the diagram, how are valence electrons illustrated? How many valence electrons does each element have?

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In the diagram, how are valence electrons illustrated? How many valence electrons does each element have?

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Answer 1 · 2017-07-04T06:59:10

Well, I would think that the electrons on the outside being DARKER are a good sign that they are important.

And in fact they are; the valence electrons are crucial to effective chemical bonding, and are usually the sole participants in chemical reactions (as opposed to core participation).

Thus, there are $bb4$ valence electrons in silicon atom, and $bb5$ in phosphorus atom.

For simplicity, you can find valence electrons for main-group elements (i.e. not transition metals and not $f$ -block elements) via their group number if it is less than $10$ , or their group number minus $10$ if the group number is greater than $10$ .

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So, in principle (at least for non-transition metals and non- $f$ -block elements), one can easily look across the periodic table and predict that oxygen has $16 - 10 = 6$ valence electrons, or boron has $13 - 10 = 3$ valence electrons.

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In the diagram, how are valence electrons illustrated? How many valence electrons does each element have?

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