Look at the following diagram and write below the correct electronic configuration to indicate the electronics in the s, p and d orbitals?

1 Answer
Jul 10, 2017

Well, from the diagram, the electron shells, using so-called "KLMN notation" (or X-ray notation), have the configuration

#2, 8, 8, 1#.

Whatever that means in what I consider a more informative notation (which delineates the subshells), we'll have to translate...

Orbital notation, or "SPDF" notation, differentiates between the orbital subshells as follows, grouping them by principal quantum number #n#.

It compares with X-ray notation as follows.

#overbrace(1s)^(K), overbrace(2s, 2p)^(L), overbrace(3s, 3p, 3d)^(M), overbrace(4s, 4p, 4d, 4f)^(N)#

So, the configuration really indicates:

#overbrace(1s^2)^(2) overbrace(2s^2 2p^6)^(8) overbrace(3s^2 3p^6 3d^0)^(8) overbrace(4s^1 4p^0 4d^0 4f^0)^(1)#,

or more simply,

#color(blue)(1s^2 2s^2 2p^6 3s^2 3p^6 4s^1)#,

the configuration for potassium.