Noting exceptions to the Aufbau filling diagram

Sadly, there are a few exceptions to the tidy picture presented by the Aufbau filling diagram.
Copper, chromium, and palladium are notable examples. These exceptional electron configurations
arise from situations where electrons get transferred from their proper, Aufbau-filled
subshells to create half-filled or fully filled sets of d subshells; these half- and fully filled
states are slightly more stable than the states produced by strict Aufbau-based filling.
Two conditions typically lead to exceptional electron configurations:
_ Successive orbital energies must lie close together, as is the case with 3d and 4s
orbitals, for example.
_ Shifting electrons between these energetically similar orbitals must result in a halffilled
or fully filled set of identical orbitals, an energetically happy state of affairs.
Here are a few examples:
_ Strictly by the rules, chromium should have the following electron configuration:
[Ar]3d44s2.
_ Because shifting a single electron from 4s to the energetically similar 3d level half-fills
the 3d set, the actual configuration of chromium is [Ar]3d54s1.
_ For similar reasons, the configuration of copper is not the expected [Ar]3d94s2, but
instead is [Ar]3d104s1.

Writing out electron configuration

To come up with a written electron configuration you
1. Determine how many electrons the atom in question actually has.
2. You assign those electrons to subshells, one electron at a time, from the lowest
energy subshells to the highest.
In a given type of subshell (like a 2p or 3d subshell, for example) you only place two
electrons within the same subshell when there is no other choice. For example, only at
oxygen (1s22s22p4) would electrons begin to double up in the 2p subshells.
3. Write out the configuration based on the assignment of electrons.
From lowest subshell to highest, you write the subshell and add the number of electrons
assigned to it in superscript, like oxygen, 1s22s22p4.
For example, suppose you want to find the electron configuration of carbon:
1. Determine the amount of electrons. Carbon has six electrons, the same as the number
of its protons as described by its atomic number, and it’s in row 2 of the periodic table.
2. Assign electrons to subshells.
First, the s subshell of level 1 is filled.
Then, the s subshell of level 2 is filled.
These subshells each accept two electrons, leaving two more with which to fill
the p subshells of level 2.
Each of the remaining electrons would occupy a separate p subshell.
3. Write out the configuration: 1s22s22p2.

32 Part II: Building Matter from the Ground Up: Atoms and Bonding