Orbital energy diagrams are provided to guide you learn about the atomic orbital. The following orbital energy diagrams are available in printable quality to show you the mathematical function of electrons in magnesium, boron trifluoride, helium, and chlorine. Explore the diagrams in the following images, simply click to save and print!
The provided picture above shows you the basic atomic orbital energy diagram. Energy levels and orbitals tell us how and where an atom places electrons. Electrons can have different energies, which impacts the behavior of every atom in terms of its properties and its reactivity with other atoms. Niels Bohr gave numbers to the different energy levels (1, 2, 3, and so on). The 1s orbital at the bottom of the diagram is the orbital with electrons of lowest energy. The energy increases as we move up to the 2s and then 2p, 3s, and 3p orbitals, showing that the increasing n value has more influence on energy than the increasing l value for small atoms. However, this pattern does not hold for larger atoms. The 3d orbital is higher in energy than the 4s orbital. Such overlaps continue to occur frequently as we move up the chart.
The arrangement of electrons in the orbitals of an atom is called the electron configuration of the atom. For example, the first two electrons of Magnesium will go in the 1s orbital. Since 1s can only hold two electrons the next 2 electrons for magnesium go in the 2s orbital. The next six electrons will go in the 2p orbital. The p orbital can hold up to six electrons. We’ll put six in the 2p orbital and then put the remaining two electrons in the 3s. Therefore the Magnesium electron configuration will be 1s22s22p63s2.
The configuration notation provides an easy way to understand and predict how atoms will interact to form chemical bonds. We hope these diagrams will help you get better knowledge and information about the orbital energy diagrams!