orbitals (1 Viewer)

[sikeveo]

can an atom have both a p orbital and an s orbital or can it only have one of the 2?

 

[xvelidras]

I think inherently all atoms have all the orbitals, its simply a matter if they are filled or not. You can have a filled s orbital and filled p orbitals, they are not exclusive of one another. e.g. Sodium's electron confriguration is 1s2, 2s2, 2p6, 3s1

 

[sikeveo]

Thanks, should have read further. What about this. This is methanes electron configuration 1s2 2s2 2px1 2py1 which means there are 6 electrons right?

 

[xvelidras]

methane.. or carbon? methane undergoes sp3 hybridisation, so the electron orbitals of the 2nd shell of the central carbon atom aren't s & p at all.

carbon is 1s2 2s2 2p2. i dont think we usually distinguish between the 3 'p orbitals' in writing electron configurations.

 

[sikeveo]

i thought u do, with x,y,z. Im pretty sure that is methanes electron configuration as i copied it from a web site.

 

[xvelidras]

If you copied it from a website you can't totally sure of its reliability =P. Checked Silberberg's Chemistry; The Molecular Nature of Matter and Change, 3rd ed, p.g 396

"The 2s and all the three 2p orbitals of C are mixed to form 4 sp3 hybrids. Carbon's four valence electrons half-fill the sp3 hybrids"

 

[sikeveo]

well chem guide uk is pretty reputable. Yeh i have silberberg somewhere, ill have to look for it. Btw did you do a chem olympiad this yr?

 

[Casmira]

err am i the only one who doesnt remember this from chemistry?

 

[Riviet]

err am i the only one who doesnt remember this from chemistry?

They were talking about another system used for the different shells in an atom, each shell is assigned a letter and there are all these rules for the system. I don't think it is in the chemistry syllabus though.

 

[sando]

wat do u mean its not in the syllabus? then why would our teacher make us learn it

 

[Riviet]

wat do u mean its not in the syllabus? then why would our teacher make us learn it

I maybe very wrong, but I really haven't encountered this before, other than my teacher talking about it a while back in year 11. According to my teacher, we don't have to know it for the chemistry hsc.

 

[sando]

i'm not saying ur wrong, but if we get taught it it we will be better off. It kind of helps ur understanding of the whole concept, if u know wat i mean

 

[Riviet]

i'm not saying ur wrong, but if we get taught it it we will be better off. It kind of helps ur understanding of the whole concept, if u know wat i mean

It's up to you. If it helps you understand better, then go for it.

 

[sikeveo]

thanks for polluting my thread. No, this is 1st yr uni chem stuff. Not hard though as you can see.

 

[xvelidras]

Btw did you do a chem olympiad this yr?

nah, all my knowledge comes from the ramblings of my chem-obsessed friends.. i think one of them went to ACHO

 

[sikeveo]

ah ok, thanks for ur help. i have to use zumdahl now since my sister sold silberberg

 

[xvelidras]

Doesn't matter, they're quite similar =P. One of my friends insists on using Zumdahl because apparently its layout is better. As for me, Silberberg happened to be the easier one to obtain.