Aufbau diagram of carbon

carbon | Aufbau diagram

Build the ground-state orbital diagram for: carbon (C) Plan: • Look up the abbreviated (condensed) ground electronic configuration. • Use the electronic configuration to identify the outermost electrons. • Determine the energetic ordering of atomic orbital subshells. • Use the following representations: a gray rectangle for an atomic orbital, an up arrow for an alpha (spin-up) spin state and a down arrow for a beta (spin-down) spin state. • Follow the Pauli exclusion principle by representing the first electron in each atomic orbital with an alpha spin state and the second electron with a beta spin state. • Place electrons into orbitals following the Aufbau principle and Hund's rule. The abbreviated ground electronic configuration for carbon is: [He]2s^22p^2 Electrons in atomic orbitals outside of the helium core, [He], are the outermost electrons: 2s^22p^2 Atomic orbital energy usually increases from 1s to 8s in the following order: Follow the Aufbau principle by filling the atomic orbitals with electrons in the following order: 2s < 2p Place two electrons as an alpha-beta pair into the 2s orbital: 2s Follow Hund's rule by placing one alpha electron each into two of the three 2p orbitals: Answer: | | 2p 2s