I'm having a lot of trouble trying to comprehend orbitals and energy levels and this s,p,d,f shit in chemistry. This is the first time I've ever really been exposed to this
Please let me know if I understand this correctly...
So each energy level, n=1, n=2, n=3, etc. has orbital shapes it can take upon?
n=1 has an S orbital (called 1s) which is shaped like a sphere....described as l=0, and ml = 0.
So... n=2 has two shapes it can take on? A second S orbital (called 2s) shaped like a double sphere (a sphere within a sphere)...described as l=0, and a P orbital (called 2p), shaped like a dumbbell, which itself takes on three different orientations (ml = -1, 0, 1)...and whose shape is described as l=1?
Then the n=3 energy level has three different main shapes or whatever it can take upon....The S orbital (
called 3s...it's basically just like the 1s and 2s orbitals...but maybe looks a little different, I don't know?)...described as l=0, the P orbital (called 3p), shaped like a dumbbell, which takes on three different orientations (ml = -1, 0, 1)...and whose shape is described as l=1, and the D orbital (called 3d), kind of shaped like a clover, which takes on five different orientations (ml = -2, -1, 0, 1, 2).
These orbitals stack upon each other in space.....and the electrons occupying that energy level (say, n=2) can choose to make their electron clouds take the shape of ANY of the orbitals in that energy level, EXCEPT that only TWO of them can occupy the same orbital at once (spinning in opposite directions, + and -).
Therefore, if you have an atom with 10 electrons.....two of them will occupy the lower 1s orbital (part of the n=1 energy level). Then two more will occupy the 2s orbital, and six will occupy the three different 2p orbitals (ml = -1, 0, 1), all in the n=2 energy level.
So in total, your 10 electrons are in two energy levels, spontaneously jumping up and down energy levels whenever possible, whenever exposed to photons, etc. They are in two S orbitals, one in the n=1, one in the n=2, and in three P orbitals, all in the n=2 level.
Now,
there are some weird things to note such as the S orbital occupying the n=4 level (4s) and the five D orbitals occupying the n=3 level (3d) are degenerate orbitals, meaning they have the same energy. And if you have enough electrons to fill up all the orbitals up to 4s, 4s will then jump down down underneath the 3d orbitals?
Furthermore, if we shoot photons from an electromagnetic wave with a high enough frequency to a certain metal plate, that energy can excite electrons to the point that they free themselves from the atom they are a part of, and are given off as radiation from the metal plate, and the atom now has one less electron, becoming positively ionized unless it gains it back?
So let's take Nitrogen for instance. Its atomic number is 7. Therefore, in its ideal state, it has 7 electrons.
These electrons occupy Nitrogen in various energy levels and orbitals, constantly jumping up and down the energy levels whenever possible.
Two electrons occupy Nitrogens first n=1 energy level, at the 1s orbital. Shaped like a sphere.
Then five electrons occupy the second n=2 energy level. Electrons occupy orbitals by themselves first before willing to let others spin with them. Two electrons occupy the 2s orbital, shaped like a double sphere. Then the last three electrons each populate one of the three orientations of the 2p orbital (ml = -1, 0, 1).
And all these orbitals and energy levels are just ways to describe the positions of electrons surrounding the atom.
Which, by the way, electrons, can exhibit the properties of both a wave and a particle. It's been stated that as a virtual particle, electrons can appear and disappear out of nothing in an electron cloud, and can simultaneously occupy more than one spot, if the time given is brief enough, and can even take all possible paths simultaneously and arrive at one spot. As a standing wave around the nucleus, an electron very quickly spawns in and out of existence at points in the electron cloud, but these points TEND to be where the wave crest of the standing wave of the electron is maximum. Places where the wave crest are at a minimum are places the electron generally avoids.
So it's best to think of an electron as not necessarily a single particle moving in a circle around a nucleus, but as a thick blanket taking on a certain shape, composed completely of one electron quickly appearing and disappearing in and out of existence in spots around the nucleus of the atom.
Did I get ANY of this right? :l
One pressing question, though:
But what is the "valence shell" of an atom? Is it the outermost orbital? That wouldn't make sense since I hear that the number is either 2, 6, or 8....and orbitals hold only two electrons at once, and if you mean the different orientations of an orbital available, such as ml=-2,-1,0,1,2 for the d orbital, that's 10 electrons...and still doesn't make sense to me. So what is it?