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.