4 The Atom & Electronic

Configuration
 Bohr Model of the Atom
Bohr suggested that an electron moving in an orbit can only have
certain amounts of energy not an infinite number of value. This
energy is quantised.
The energy that an electron needs in order to move in a particular
orbit depends on the radius of the orbit.

An electron in an orbit further away from the nucleus requires higher

energy than an electron nearer the nucleus.

If the energy of the electron is quantised then the radius of the orbit
must also be quantised. there are a restricted number of orbits.
 Ionisation Energy
Definition The 1st ionisation energy of an element is the energy
change for the conversion of 1mol of gaseous atoms into 1 mol of
gaseous ions.
i.e it is the energy change for the process
M(g)  M+(g) + e

Similarly the 2nd ionisation energy is the energy change for the process
M+(g)  M2+(g) + e

Examples
1st ionisation energy 2nd ionisation energy
H = 1310 KJ/mol
He = 2370 KJ/mol 5250 KJ/mol
The second electron is always harder to remove than the
1st

x 2p x

Helium contains 2 electrons and 2 protons. Each

electron shields the other electron from some of the
positive charge on the nucleus. When 1 electron is
removed the remaining electron now feels ALL of the
positive charge. There is more attraction on the
remaining electron which then requires more energy
to be removed.
 Lithium has 3 electrons and 3 protons

1st I.E. = 519 KJ/mol

2nd I.E. = 7300 Kj/mol
3rd I.E. = 11800 Kj/mol
Notice the large increase in ionisation energy between the 1st and 2nd
and then a smaller jump between the 2nd and 3rd

x 3p x

The outer electron is easier to remove as it is in a shell further

away from the nucleus
 Carbon has 6 electrons 2 in first shell. 4 in second shell
and 6 protons in the nucleus (electronic configuration 2,4)

x x 6p x x

x
The 4 electrons in the second shell are easier to remove
than the 2 in the first shell as they are further from the
nucleus.
However if we plot a graph of
ionisation energy against
electron removed

The first 2 electrons are relatively easy to remove, the 2nd

two slightly harder and the last 2 much harder. The first 4
are in the outer shell the last 2 are in the inner shell
Notice the ease of removal is not a smooth trend from 1 -
4 . There is a slight jump in ionisation energy between the
2nd and 3rd electron. This suggests that the 1& 2
electrons being removed are in a slightly higher energy
level than the 3 & 4
The small jump in I.E for the carbon
atom is between electrons...
1. 2 and 3
2. 3 and 4
3. 5 and 6
From this we conclude that the 2nd shell consists of 2
subshells, one slightly closer to the nucleus than the
other

1s

2s
x x x 6p x x x

2p

We now write the electronic configuration as 1s2 2s2 2p2

Why are the orbitals named this way?
‘The choice of letters originates from a now-obsolete system of
categorizing spectral lines as "sharp", "principal", "diffuse" and
"fundamental" (or "fine"), based on their observed fine structure’

http://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/42086
The first 2 electrons (1,2) removed are in a 2p orbital
The next 2 electrons (3,4) removed are in 2s orbital
The last 2 electrons (5,6) removed are in a 1s orbital

There is also a third type of orbital called a d orbital. The

first element with a d orbital is scandium (the first
transition element)

All orbitals can hold 2 electrons.

The first shell has only 1 s orbital
The second shell has 1 s orbital and 3 p orbitals
The 3rd shell has 1 s orbital, 3 p orbitals and 5 d orbitals
\ The first shell can hold 2 electrons
The second shell can hold 8 electrons
The third shell can hold 18 electrons

We can now write electronic configurations as follows

Li 3electrons 1s2 2s1

C 6 electrons 1s2 2s2 2p2
Na 11 electrons 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s1

Note that the outer shell contains the same no of electrons

as the group number. Carbon group 4 has 4 electrons in
the 2nd shell
 The electronic configuration for
Boron is ...
1. 1s2 2s3
2. 1s2 2s2 3s1
3. 1s2 2s2 2p1
4. 1s2 2p3
Finding the electronic configuration of ions
Li 1s2 2s1
Li+ 1s 2
It has lost 1 electron and now has a filled shell and is stable

Be 1s2 2s2
Be2+ 1s2
it has lost 2 electrons and now has a filled shell and is stable
Write the configuration of the following elements

N Mg Al Cl

1s22s22p3 1s22s22p63s2 1s22s22p63s23p1 1s22s22p63s23p5

Al3+ F- Na+

1s22s22p6 1s22s22p6 1s22s22p6

 The electronic configuration of
Mg2+ is...
1. 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2
2. 1s2 2s2 2p6
3. 1s2 2s2 2p8
4. 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s1
Elements in groups 1 and 2 are filling s orbitals and are called s block
Element in groups 3-8 are filling p orbitals and are called p block
The transition elements are filling d orbitals and are called d block

When we write a configuration we ‘fill’ orbitals from the lowest

energy to the highest. i.e. electrons are added to the inner 1s
orbital first followed by 2s then 2p etc. This is called the aufbau
principal (to build up) An atom with all electrons in the lowest
possible energy levels is said to be in its ground state
Orbital Energies and Filling Order
When writing configurations for the transition elements the
4s orbital is filled before the 3d (the 4s orbital is actually
lower in energy than the 3d)

So the configuration of Sc is 1s22s22p63s23p64s23d1

It is the first transition metals and has 1 d electron. (It is

easy to find the number of d electrons – just count from
scandium across the row)
 The electronic configuration of
Fe is...
1. 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 4s2
3d5
2. 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 3d8
3. 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 4s2
3d6
4. 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 4s2
4d6
 Finding the electronic configuration of heavier
atoms

For atoms with many electrons (e.g. Sn with 50 electrons) it is very

time consuming to work out the configuration from the start using
1s22s22p6….. etc.

For these atoms we can use a condensed form by incorporating the

configuration of the noble gas in the previous period.

So for Sn we can write the configuration as [Kr]5s24d105p2

Sketch the graph that would be obtained by plotting ionization
Energy against electron removed for sulphur
 Trends in Ionisation Energy

Across a period 1st ionisation energy increases as the radius decreases as it

is harder to remove an electron. However this is not a smooth trend. The 1st
I.E. for oxygen is lower than that of nitrogen.

Nitrogen

Oxygen

The electron configurations of nitrogen and oxygen are:

N 1s2 2s2 2p3
O 1s2 2s2 2p4
Electrons will go into separate orbitals first to reduce repulsion so
the 3 2p orbitals in nitrogen are singly occupied.

In oxygen there are 4 2p electrons so 2 electrons must go into one

orbital. Electrons are negatively charged so repulsion occurs and it
requires lower energy to remove this electron.
 Things to do!
Read OpenStax Text Book Section 6.4
Questions 48-49, 54-64, 67-81