What orbitals do valence electrons occupy?
1 Answer
See here for further explanation.
For NON-transition-metal elements (i.e. non-d-block, non-f-block), we have that the valence electrons occupy the orbitals where the quantum level
(NOTE: I am not simply saying "valence orbitals for all elements" because sometimes valence orbitals are not occupied at all, like in americium, with electron configuration
For example, the valence electrons occupy the
EXCEPTIONS BELOW!
d-block metals
For many
#d# -block metals (such as scandium or tungsten), the#(n-1)d# orbitals also hold some of the valence electrons, not just the#ns# and#np# orbitals.
f-block metals
For many
#f# -block metals, the#(n-2)f# orbitals could also contain some of the valence electrons (such as for protactinium), not just the#ns# and#np# orbitals.Sometimes the
#(n-1)d# orbitals ALSO hold some of the valence electrons, but sometimes they don't (such as for berkelium), depending on the particular#f# -block metal.