Quantum Mechanics!

We learned about an entirely new topic today, and we all left the classroom about 10 times more chemically advanced, if that makes sense! 

I guess it isn't ENTIRELY new, but it's just building on all of the stuff we learned x 100000! 

So here's the low-down:

The Bohr Theory states that: 

An electron is a negative particle that must in an orbital in an atom

The Quantum Theory states that:

An Electron is like a little cloud of negatives energy, or a wave. 

Orbitals are areas in 3D space where electrons are. The energy of the electron is in its vibrational modes- just like notes on a guitar string, or a bit like a slinky! Photons are produced when high energy modes shift down to lower energy modes.

These are what the orbitals look like:

First there are the S orbitals

-Each orbital holds 2 electrons

 

Then the P Orbitals which exist starting from the second S orbital:

-There are 3 sub-orbitals in the P orbitals

-Each contains 2 electrons, meaning there is a total of 6

 

Then the D orbitals that exist starting from 4s

-There are 5 suborbitals

-Each contains 2 electrons (as all orbitals do), meaning there is a total of 10

 

Then the F orbitals

-There are 7 suborbitals

-Each contains 2 electrons, totalling up to 14 electrons

Depending on the number of electrons in an atom, it takes up different amounts of different orbitals. This chart shows more precisely how these different electrons take up different orbitals

  

Here are some examples:

Oxygen has 8 electrons. It takes up the 1s (2 electrons) as well as 2s (2 electrons) and 2 2p orbitals (4 electrons), which totals up to 8!

Silver has 47 electrons. It takes up 1 s, 2 s, 2p, 3s, 3p, 4s, 3d, 4p and 5s (totalling up to 38 electrons) and then it takes up 4 4d orbitals.

New Examples:
Which element has the structure 1s, 2s, 2p, 3s, 3p, 4s, 4p, 3d, 5s^1
It's Rb, Rubidium! We know this because (if you look at the periodic table above) it is the first element on the 5th period, meaning it goes up to 5s, but only had one orbital in the 5s.

Which element has the structure 1s, 2s, 2p, 3s, 3p,4s, 3d^6 ?
It's iron! Because it's on the 4th period, we know it goes to at least 4s, and then it is 6 elements down!

Here's a video showing the shapes of s, p and d orbitals! It's really handy in terms of visualization!

Atomic Orbitals!