Why is a 3s orbital lower in energy than a 3p orbital in all atoms other than a hydrogen atom which only has a single electron?
1 Answer
Because of how there IS only one electron in
The added electrons in multi-electron atoms are intrinsically correlated in such a way that each electron is influenced by the motions of the others.
This electron correlation introduces the effect of electron-electron repulsion. That in turn generates an energy splitting of the orbitals with the same
For example, for just the
"H" atom:
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" "" "" "underbrace(" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" ")
3s" "" "" "" "" "" "3p
For multi-electron atoms:
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" "" "" "underbrace(" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" ")
ul(color(white)(uarr darr))" "" "" "" "" "3p
3s
We had that the
In multi-electron atoms, higher