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

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Answer 1 · 2017-07-10T17:53:48

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 $n$ .

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

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.