6.5 Atomic Orbitals

6.5 Atomic Orbitals

Once the atomic orbitals are known, we need to determine how the electrons in an atom will occupy these orbitals. Electrons will always occupy orbitals in the lowest energy configuration possible, and we need to determine which orbitals have the lowest energy.


6.5 Energies of Atomic Orbitals




Now that we have a grasp on the relative energies of the atomic orbitals we can start populating them with electrons. The two methods we use to indicate how electrons fill in the atomic orbitals are electron configurations and orbital block diagrams.