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TURN IN YOUR
FLAME LAB
 5.2
Electron Configurations
• Aufbau Principle
– According to the aufbau principle, electrons occupy
the orbitals of lowest energy first.
• Hund’s Rule
– Hund’s rule states that each orbital will receive one
electron with the same spin before completing the
orbitals with a second electron with the opposite spin
• Pauli Exclusion Principle
– According to the Pauli exclusion principle, an atomic
orbital may describe at most two electrons. To occupy
the same orbital, two electrons must have opposite
spins; that is, the electron spins must be paired.
 5.2
Orbital Notation
• Orbital Filling Diagram
EJECT! EJECT!
An electron can absorb the energy from a photon of light
bombarding an atom. If substantial enough, the increase in
energy contributes to the following:
• Increasing the potential energy of the electron to zero,
thereby ejecting it. This is symbolized as the change in
potential energy, ΔUE.
• Providing the electron with kinetic energy (KE) so it can
zoom off once free from the attractive force of the nucleus.

Mathematically, the energy of a photon is given as hν,

where h is Plank’s constant and ν is the electron’s
frequency. Therefore,

hv = change in potential energy + kinetic energy of the

electron
• The analysis of electron energies for an atom via
this principle is called photoelectron emission
spectroscopy (PES).
• Let’s break that down:
• A “photoelectron” is an electron that has absorbed the
energy from a photon.
• “Emission spectroscopy” just means that there will be a
range, or spectrum, of energies from the emitted
photoelectrons. Because only one frequency of photon
is used for analysis, electrons with different potential
energies in the atom escape with different velocities
according to their kinetic energy.
Couloumb’s Law

• F is force of attraction
• k is a proportionality constant
• q1 is charge on particle 1
• q2 is charge on particle 2
• d is distance between the 2 particles
• Although a detector is directly measuring the kinetic
energy of the photoelectrons, simple algebra allows us to
easily plot the ΔUE. Figure 1 shows the spectrum that
resulted from the PES analysis of a hydrogen atom.
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• In the diagram shown in the figure above, if the two electrons are bombarded with the
same wavelength of light, justify which electron:
• a. Has the greater initial UE
• A since it is further from the nucleus
• b. Will experience the greater ΔUE
• B since it has a lower potential energy, it requires more energy to eject
• c. Will have the greater escape velocity
• A since less of the photon’s energy will be used to eject it, it has more kinetic energy and greater
velocity.
• Based on your answers, state the relationship that exists between an electron’s UE and
the ΔUE required to eject it.
• The greater the UE the lower the change in energy required to eject it
• Based on the spectrum for helium shown in Figure 4, which model
shown best represents the electron arrangement for helium?
• Compare and contrast the spectra for hydrogen and
helium. What differences in the atomic structure of
hydrogen and helium can account for why the values for
hydrogen and helium are not the same?
 Couloumb’s Law
When particles are in charge, opposites attract.
• An electric field exists between two point charges, and the force between
them is either attractive or repulsive.
The electrostatic potential energy (UE) increases when a point charge (q1
or q2) is moved in a direction opposite the direction of the electrostatic
force between q1 and q2.
• At the reference point where the two charges are infinitely far from each
other, the UE is zero.
• The unit for electrostatic potential energy is joules.
The electrostatic potential energy can be calculated by

where
ke = Coulomb’s constant
q1, q2 = point charges (with sign)
r = the distance in meters
Predict the PES graph for Lithium
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4 – Predict Beryllium
5 – Predict Boron
6 – Predict Carbon
7 – Predict Nitrogen
8 – Predict Oxygen
9 – Predict Fluorine
10 – Predict Neon
11 – Predict Sodium
12 – Predict Magnesium
13 – Predict Aluminum
14 – Predict Silicon
15 – Predict Phosphorus
16 – Predict Sulfur
17 – Predict Chlorine
18 – Predict Argon
19 – Predict Potassium
20 – Predict Calcium
21 – Predict Scandium
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PES EXAMPLES
photoelectron spectroscopy
1. y and z represent which sublevel?
S
2. x represents which sublevel?
P
3. Why is x 3times larger than y and z?
It has 6 electrons (3 orbitals vs 1 orbital)
4. What element does this represent?
Ne
5. Why does z have the highest Ionization Energy?
Because it is closest to the nucleus
6. Do x, y, z represent orbitals, sublevels or energy levels?
sublevels
7. Which one would require the least amount of energy to remove an
electron (x, y, z)?
X
8. What element does this represent?
Mg
9. Why is the value of z greater than 100 for this element and less than 100
for the previous element?
more protons in the nucleus so greater attraction
10. How many different energy levels are represented?
4
11. How many different types of sublevels are
represented?
2s&p
12. What element does this represent?
Calcium
13. The blue line represents which element?
Calcium
14. The pink line represents which element?
Potassium
15. Which element requires more energy to remove an electron from
any of the sublevels?
Calcium
16. Why do you think it requires more energy than the other element?
greater attraction due to more protons
17. The blue line represents which element?
Nitrogen
18. The pink line represents which element?
Oxygen
19. Which element requires more energy to remove an electron from the 1st energy level? Why?
Oxygen – more protons = more attraction
20. Which element requires more energy to remove an electron from the 2s sublevel? Why?
Oxygen – more protons = more attraction
21. Which element requires more energy to remove an electron from the 2p? Why?
Nitrogen – because of little electron repulsion in unpaired orbitals versus electron repulsion in
paired orbitals
22. How many different energy levels are represented?
4
23. How many different types of sublevels are represented?
3 – s, p and d
24. What element does this represent?
Scandium
25. What does the x represent?
4s sublevel
26. What does the y represent?
3d sublevel
27. Which one (x or y) requires less energy to remove an electron from?
4s because of the distance from the nucleus