Question

How many electrons occupy $p -$ orbital in chlorine atoms?

Answer 1

The atomic number of chlorine is $17$ which is an element of the halogen family and it has a tendency to accept an electron and become inert in the atmosphere. We will write its electronic configuration. With the help of electronic configuration we can find the total number of electrons which are available in its $p -$ orbital.

Complete answer:
Since we know that chlorine is a member of the halogen family and its atomic number is $17$ . We can find the number of electrons which are present in the $p -$ orbital of chlorine by writing its electronic configuration. Its electronic configuration can be written as:
$1{s^2}2{s^2}2{p^6}3{s^2}3{p^5}$
From above we can observe that its $2p$ orbital is completely filled which contains six electrons and its $3p$ orbital contains five electrons. Thus in total we can sum up the number of electrons present in $p -$ orbital as :
$\Rightarrow 6 + 5 = 11$
Therefore we can say that the total number of electrons present in $p -$ orbital of chlorine atoms is eleven. Also we can conclude that the second shell contains eight electrons and the third shell contains only seven electrons thus it accepts one electron and becomes inert in the atmosphere by achieving a noble state configuration.

Note:
It can be seen that $s -$ orbital contains a total of six electrons and $p -$ orbital contains eleven electrons. Thus the total number of electrons present in a chlorine atom is seventeen which is equal to its atomic number. Thus we can verify our result in this way by finding the total number of electrons and its atomic number. We can also conclude that chlorine atoms contain three shells.