Question

The ground state electronic configuration of the carbon atom is:
A. Two unpaired electrons are available
B. four unpaired electrons are available
C. one unpaired electron is available
D. three unpaired electrons are available.

Answer 1

For this problem, firstly we have to study the carbon atom and about the number of electrons found in the carbon atom. So that we can write the electronic configuration by following Aufbau's rule and Hund's rule.

Complete Step-by-step answer:
- In the given question, we have to choose the correct option which is correct for the electronic configuration of the carbon atom.
- As we know that carbon atom is a chemical element which is placed in the periodic table in group 14 and period 4.
- Carbon has the atomic number of 6 which consist of 6 electrons, 6 protons so the electronic configuration of the element will be:
$\text{1}{{\text{s}}^{2}}\text{ 2}{{\text{s}}^{2}}\text{ 2}{{\text{p}}^{2}}$
- So, according to the Hund's rule when there are two or more orbitals then firstly each orbital is filled with one electron equally and then the pairing will take place.
- So, the filling of the orbitals of the shells can be represented as:

- Here, s - subshell has only one orbital whereas p subshell has three orbitals.
- So, we can see that two electrons present in the p subshell are unpaired whereas all the electrons of the s subshell are paired.
- But when the electrons are excited by absorbing the energy then the electron from s orbital exits to the empty shell of the p.

Therefore, option A is the correct answer.

Note: When electrons are excited to the p subshell from s subshell then carbon will have four unpaired electrons one in s subshell and 3 in p subshell. The electron which is filled in the orbitals has opposite spin.