Orbitals & Subshells

Orbitals

Orbitals are the region around a nucleus where there is a high probability of locating an electron. There are 4 kinds to be aware of now:

s-orbital
p-orbital
d-orbital
f-orbital

S-Orbital

An s-orbital refers to an orbital spherical in shape. There is only one type of s-orbital.

P-Orbital

A p-orbital refers to an orbital along a single axis. There are three kinds of p-orbitals:

\(p_x\)
\(p_y\)
\(p_z\)

The subscript refers to the axis along which the orbital takes place.

D-Orbital

A d-orbital refers to an orbital along two axes. There are 5 kinds of d-orbitals:

\(d_{x^2-y^2}\) (this orbital lies on the x and y axes)
\(d_{xy}\) (this orbital lies in between the x and y axes (diagonally, if you will))
\(d_{xz}\) (same as \(d_{xy}\), just without the y axis but with the z axis)
\(d_{yz}\)
\(d_{z^2}\) (this lies on the z axis with a spherical donut thing looping around the center, where the 3 axes intersect)

F-Orbital

Information on this is not needed for now. Just note that this is very rare and that there are 7 kinds of f-orbitals.

Fitting Electrons into Orbitals

Each orbital has enough room for no more than 2 electrons.

Subshells

A subshell is a group of (degenrate) orbitals. A p subshell, for example, will refer to \(p_x\), \(p_y\) and \(p_z\) orbitals. The types noted above are the respective s-subshells, p-subshells, d-subshells and f-subshells.

Degenerate Orbitals

The same type of orbit, but in different directions.

Fitting Electrons into Subshells

This is simply the sum of the total electrons that can fit into a subshell. Remember that an orbital can have no more than 2 electrons. Hence, if the p-subshell (as an example) as 3 types of orbitals, then a total of 6 can fit in the subshell.

S-Subshell

Maximum electrons: 2

P-Subshell

Maximum electrons: 6

D-Subshell

Maximum electrons: 10

F-Subshell

Maximum electrons: 14

This article was written on 02/10/2023. If you have any thoughts, feel free to send me an email with them. Have a nice day!