I wrote the flourine atom according to its sp form:
1s2 2s2 2p5.
As I understand it, for flourine to be "more stable" it gains one electron for its 2p shell and becomes the flouride ion : 1s2 2s2 2p6. Conceptually, I do not understand where these s and p orbitals come from. What are they and how did scientists figure them out without directly verifying its existence?
1s2 2s2 2p5.
As I understand it, for flourine to be "more stable" it gains one electron for its 2p shell and becomes the flouride ion : 1s2 2s2 2p6. Conceptually, I do not understand where these s and p orbitals come from. What are they and how did scientists figure them out without directly verifying its existence?
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Hi Shaniqua
That is a great question. Actually, many orbital theories have been proposed by chemists long ago and one famous one was the Bohr model. It stated that electrons are stuck in orbits around the nucleus much like the planets orbiting the sun. His model was accepted at first because it accurately predicted the behaviors and energies given off by the hydrogen atom but soon, scientists realized that Bohr's model failed to explain the behavior of any other atom with more than one proton in its nucleus. A new model needed to be proposed and that model is the quantum model. Instead of fixed orbits, electrons are now proposed to occupy a certain space near an atom called orbitals. Also thanks to the chemist de Broglie, scientists have also found that electrons have wave properties and so along with the Heisenburg Uncertainty principle, modern scientists have concluded that electrons exist in a dense cloud (the orbital) and that the exact position of the electron in space cannot be determined exactly ( we can only approximate its location). That is how scientists basically verified the existence of the orbitals because using this concept, they were able to accurately determine the bond angles and other chemical properties of compounds that make unique bonds. The s orbital is simply the lowest electron orbital as it is sphere shaped and it can only hold 2 electrons with opposite spins, as stated by the pauli exclusion principle. The p orbitals are dumbbell shaped (there are 3 which are the x, y and z orbitals) and each can also hold 2 electrons. Anyway, that is about it for electron configurations.
I hope this helped and feel free to ask me anything else if this was too confusing :)
That is a great question. Actually, many orbital theories have been proposed by chemists long ago and one famous one was the Bohr model. It stated that electrons are stuck in orbits around the nucleus much like the planets orbiting the sun. His model was accepted at first because it accurately predicted the behaviors and energies given off by the hydrogen atom but soon, scientists realized that Bohr's model failed to explain the behavior of any other atom with more than one proton in its nucleus. A new model needed to be proposed and that model is the quantum model. Instead of fixed orbits, electrons are now proposed to occupy a certain space near an atom called orbitals. Also thanks to the chemist de Broglie, scientists have also found that electrons have wave properties and so along with the Heisenburg Uncertainty principle, modern scientists have concluded that electrons exist in a dense cloud (the orbital) and that the exact position of the electron in space cannot be determined exactly ( we can only approximate its location). That is how scientists basically verified the existence of the orbitals because using this concept, they were able to accurately determine the bond angles and other chemical properties of compounds that make unique bonds. The s orbital is simply the lowest electron orbital as it is sphere shaped and it can only hold 2 electrons with opposite spins, as stated by the pauli exclusion principle. The p orbitals are dumbbell shaped (there are 3 which are the x, y and z orbitals) and each can also hold 2 electrons. Anyway, that is about it for electron configurations.
I hope this helped and feel free to ask me anything else if this was too confusing :)
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The orbitals are where the electrons could potentially be around the centre of the atom (the protons and the neutrons).