Electron Wave Functions/Orbitals Flashcards
What is principal quantum number?
Another term for shell (n). It basically tells you where an electron is positioned around an atom, the size of an orbital, and the energy of the orbital.
An electron in which orbit has the lowest energy?
n = 1 because it is closest to the nucleus. When an electron has higher n, it has more energy but is also more unstable. An electron with n = infinity is an unbound electron and has left the nucleus altogether
What was the Bohr model and why did it fail?
An electron moving around a nucleus similar to planetary movements; electrons are particles with orbits. Failed because it could not explain atoms with more than one electron. It is still respected though cause it introduced:
- Principal Quantum Number (n)
- Fixed Energy Levels for Electrons
Who is Louis de Broglie?
Believed atoms are both likes particles and waves. Electrons with mass and speed (v) are bound inside an atom and behave like standing waves in wavelengths; electrons are standing waves and have orbits
What is Schrodinger’s equation?
Used wave functions to describe the wave associated with with electrons in 3D space; this solved the question “where is the electron?”
What does Schrodinger’s equation give?
- Wave functions for an electron wave, which leads to shape of electron wave
- energy levels of an electron
This essentially gave us orbitals.
The larger the n then…?
The higher the energy of the orbital and the higher probability of finding an electron at a further distance from the nucleus.
What are subshells?
spdf configurations, they help define the shape of the orbital. The shell (n) indicates the number of subshells in an orbital.
What are s orbitals?
- Spherical in shape
- Probability of finding an electron is the same in all directions
- High chance of finding an electron within the sphere
- 0 chance of finding an electron within the spherical node
What is the equation for nodes?
Number of nodes = n -1
What are p orbitals?
- Two lobes
- High probability of finding electrons in those lobes
- 0 chance of finding electrons in the nodal plane between the lobes
- There are 3 p orbitals (x,y,z) and they have the same size, energy, and shape but have different orientations
- Perpendicular to one another and centered around the nucleus
What is different about 3p orbitals compared to 2p orbitals?
3p orbitals have an additional nodal plane
What are d orbitals?
- With the exception of dz^2, the d orbitals of 4 lobes with different orientations around the nucleus
- There are 2 nodal planes (2 nodal cones for dz^2)
Can we find the exact location and energy of an electron at the same time?
No, we can only calculate the probability of finding an electron with a specific energy within a given space
What does degenerate mean?
orbitals at the same energy level. Hydrogen is degenerate because it has one electron, and therefore does not have electron-electron repulsion. Making it so its energy for each n is the same
