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VCE Stuff => VCE Science => VCE Mathematics/Science/Technology => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE Chemistry => Topic started by: bennyp85 on March 27, 2012, 06:16:04 pm
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Sl.No Electron Shell
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1 K Shell 2 electrons
2 L Shell 8 electrons
3 M shell 18 electrons
4 N shell 32 electrons
If we write calcium shown below
Calcium Ca 20 2,8,8,2
How do i write Coppers configuration ?
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The 4s subshell is lower in energy than the 3d subshell (Take a look at this diagram)
Hence, the 4s subshell will fill before the 3d subshell
Converting to your terminology, where K=1, L=2, M=3, N=4
The 4s of the 'N' shell fills before the M
(Never seen this KLMN stuff before!)
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Errr okay
Thanks for the help
:) :)
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Oh right, you were asking for Coppers configuration, using Calcium as an example
Copper is a weird one. Copper has 29 electrons right. You'd expect it to have 2 electrons in the 4s subshell and 9 in the 3d subshell
But having the d subshell either half-full (like Chromium) or full (in this case, Copper) is more stable, i.e, lower energy
Hence, we find that 1 electron from the 4s subshell goes to the 3d subshell, filling it up to 10. Hence, 3d10 4s1
Hopefully, im not making a complete fool of myself ::)
(Chromium has a 3d5 4s1, half-full)
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Cu: 1s^2, 2s^2, 2p^6, 3s^s, 3p^6, 4s^2, 3d^9
Rewritten as 1s^2, 2s^2, 2p^6, 3s^s, 3p^6, 3d^9, 4s^2 this is because of the number order.
Also, the 3d^9 is unstable and would rather be full, so then it would be:
1s^2, 2s^2, 2p^6, 3s^s, 3p^6,3d^10. 4s^1
I hope I'm right and that I helped.