Q. Aluminum is the most abundant metal in earth’s crust.
(a)(i) Complete the full electronic configuration of Al
atom. Label the energy levels to indicate the principal quantum
number and the type of orbital at each energy level
(ii) Sketch the shapes of each of the following sub-shell in Al.
Label each sub-shell you draw.
………...
…………
………...
lowest-energy occupied highest-energy occupied
highest
energy unoccupied
sub-shell
sub-shell
sub-shell
Ans that i am looking for:
lowest energy occupied.....Is
highest energy occpied .....3px or 3py or 3pz
highest energy unoccupied..... ??
I have confusion about the last one would it be 4s or one of the
3p susb-shell since the next eelctron will go to the any of 3py or
3pz.??
Hi Kahynickel, you're setting this qn for your students?
You should use the term "orbital" rather than "subshell" in the
question, since for instance, the 3p subshell consists of the 3px,
3py and 3pz orbitals.
By default, electrons will fill up (what we humans label as) the px
orbital, before filling up py and pz orbitals. Of course, this is
just a human-thing, but nonetheless, that's what is expected of A
level students.
As such, highest energy orbital occupied should be 3px, and highest
energy orbitals unoccupied should be 3py and 3pz (accept either
drawn).
The 4th electron shell (there's no such thing as "quantum shell",
only "quantum number", a common error made by school teachers in
Singapore and around the world) is irrelevant to Al (being a period
3 element), and thus orbitals from the 4th (or greater) electron
shell, will not be acceptable as an answer.
