Question

exam 2: periodicity & electron configuration/em spectrum
what is the orbital diagram for chlorine (cl)?
1s 2s 2p 3s 3p

Explanation:

Step1: Determine chlorine's atomic number

Chlorine (Cl) has an atomic number of 17. This means it has 17 electrons to distribute in orbitals.

Step2: Fill the orbitals according to rules

• The 1s orbital can hold 2 electrons. So, it is filled with a pair of electrons (↑↓).
• The 2s orbital can also hold 2 electrons. It is filled with a pair of electrons (↑↓).
• The 2p orbital has 3 sub - orbitals and can hold 6 electrons. It is filled with 6 electrons, with 2 electrons in each sub - orbital (↑↓ in each of the 3 sub - orbitals).
• The 3s orbital can hold 2 electrons. It is filled with a pair of electrons (↑↓).
• The 3p orbital has 3 sub - orbitals and can hold 6 electrons. Chlorine has 5 remaining electrons after filling the previous orbitals. So, one sub - orbital has a pair of electrons (↑↓) and the other two sub - orbitals have one electron each (↑ in each).

Answer:

1s: ↑↓
2s: ↑↓
2p: ↑↓ ↑↓ ↑↓
3s: ↑↓
3p: ↑↓ ↑ ↑