Atomic Orbitals

1s

What does an atom look like?

An atom has a nucleus of protons neutrons surrounded by electrons. electrons are often pictured circling nucleus like planets orbiting the sun. picture is useful but not very realistic. and The the This

K
0

2s

2p

L
0 0 1

In reality, the position of an electron is known only as a cloud of probability called an orbital. Orbitals have wondrous shapes described by the Schrdinger wave equation from quantum physics. Only two electrons are allowed to occupy each orbital, so atoms with many electrons have many different overlapping orbitals. Orbitals are grouped into shells (K, L, etc.) and subshells (1s, 2p, etc.), with smaller shells surrounded by and permeated by larger shells. The fundamental orbitals are shown here, but there are many more hybrid orbitalscombinations of the fundamental orbitalswith other marvelous shapes.

3s

3p

3d

M
0 0 1 0 1 2

An orbital may be pictured as a probability density distribution (a fuzzy cloud) or as a surface of constant probability (a bulgy blob). The cloud picture is closer to reality, but the blob picture shows the three dimensional structure more clearly.

4s

4p

4d

4f

N
0 0 1 0 1 2 0 1 2 3

5s

5p

5d

5f

O
0 0 1 0 1 2 0
1s 2s 3s 4s 3d 4d 5d 6d 4f 5f 5s 6s 7s 2p 3p 4p 5p 6p 7p

2
1s

6s

6p

6d

P
0 0 1 0 1 2

7s

7p

Q
0 0 1

Periodic table of the elements showing the order in which the subshells are filled. 2007 Keith Enevoldsen elements.wlonk.com

Orbitals rendered with Orbital Viewer from www.orbitals.com