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Topic: The order in which atomic subshells are filled.  (Read 17453 times)

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Offline NewtoAtoms

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The order in which atomic subshells are filled.
« on: May 11, 2008, 05:10:27 PM »
Hello again,

I have found a wonderful diagram which shows the way that atomic subparticles are filled which is
1s<2s<2p<3s<3p<4s<3d<4p<5s<4d<5p<6s<4f<5d<6p<7s<5f<6d<7p

However all my sources that I have found say that only some atoms follow this filling pattern while others fill without the inversion of some shells. 

Would anyone be so kind as to explain to me  how on earth I know which ones follow this pattern stated above and which one's follow a pattern without inverting some subshells.
For example: 1s<2s<2p<3s<3p<3d<4s<4p<4d<4f< etc....

Thank you everyone!


Offline Astrokel

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« Last Edit: May 12, 2008, 08:06:47 AM by Astrokel »
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Offline FeLiXe

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Re: The order in which atomic subshells are filled.
« Reply #2 on: May 12, 2008, 10:56:12 AM »
there is no simple rule. all you can do is look at trends in your periodic table. and you can remember that half filled and filled subshells are typically more stable
but i don't think this is a really important question as it only pertains to transition metals and with ionic compounds always only the d orbitals are occupied
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Offline tamim83

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Re: The order in which atomic subshells are filled.
« Reply #3 on: May 12, 2008, 01:40:51 PM »
Most elements are going to follow the Aufbau principle, this is the filling order given in the original post.  The exceptions come in the transition metals mostly and occur when you can achieve a half filled subshell (for d and f) or a full d or f subshell.  This happens for the Cr group which have nd5 ms1 and in the Cu group, having nd10 ms1.  I am fairly certain this happens for rare earth metals as well. 

Things get a bit hairy with elements that are filling higher energy orbitals too because these orbitals are extremely close in energy and I suppose spectroscopy or high level calculations are used to sort them out. 

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