Question

How do you find the electronic configuration of an element?

Answer 1

There are various shells in the atoms which are denoted by K, L, M, N, etc. According to the number of electrons in the atoms are arranged in the shells and the last shell of the atom is the valence shell and the electrons in that shell are valence electrons. If the atomic number of the element is x then the number of electrons and the number of protons is also x.

Complete step by step answer:
- The periodic table is the arrangement of elements according to their increasing number of electrons and these electrons are filled in the orbits according to their increasing energies. There are various shells in the atoms which are denoted by K, L, M, N, etc, which represents the specific energy of the shell. The shell K represents 1, the shell L represents 2, the shell M represents 3, the shell N represents 4. Each shell has specific sub-shells which are s, p, d, f, etc.
- According to the number of electrons in the atoms are arranged in the shells and the last shell of the atom is the valence shell and the electrons in that shell are valence electrons and these valence electrons are responsible for the bond formation. As the valence electron decides the block of the element, if the last electron enters in the s-subshell then the element is of s-block.
- There are many orbitals that are placed according to their increasing order of energies. The order is $\text{1s 2s 2p 3s 3p 4s 3d 4p 5s 4d 5p 6s 4f 5d 6p 7s 5f 6d 7p}$. And we know that the s-orbital can accommodate only 2 electrons, the p-orbital can accommodate 6 electrons, the d-orbital can accommodate 10 electrons, and the f-orbital can accommodate 14 electrons.
So, with the atomic number, we can find the electronic configuration of the element.

Note: If the element has any charge on the symbol then it is an ion, if the charge is positive then there is the removal of electrons and if there is a negative charge on the symbol then there is the addition of electrons.