Electronic Structure

This is a table of element valences.

This table is a compilation of the electron configurations of the elements up through number 104. Tips for writing out stable configurations and for shorthand notation are included.

Learn about the different types of chemical bonds and the forces that affect the way electrons are shared.

The photoelectric effect occurs when matter emits electrons upon exposure to electromagnetic radiation, such as photons of light. Here's a closer look at what the photoelectric effect is and how it works.

Millikan's oil drop experiment measured the charge of the electron.

Chemistry is mostly the study of electron interactions between atoms and molecules. Understanding the behavior of the electrons in an atom is an important part of understanding chemical reactions. Electron orbitals depended on three properties: the amount of energy, angular momentum and magnetic moment of the individual electron.

Stable atoms have as many electrons as they do protons. How do these electrons orient themselves around the nucleus? They fill their electron orbitals by the aufbau principle.

Learn about Lewis structures, also called electron dot structures and get step-by-step help drawing them.

Molecular geometry is the three-dimensional arrangement of atoms within a molecule. Here's an introduction to molecular geometry with instructions for how to predict configuration and a table of VSEPR geometries.

Learn about electronegativity, the trends of electronegativity for elements in the periodic table, and how electronegativity relates to chemical bonding.

Ionization energy is the energy required to remove an electron from an atom or ion in the gas state. Here's more information about what ionization energy is and what trends in ionization energy you can expect to see on the periodic table.

Here is a worked example problem showing how to tell whether an element is paramagnetic or diamagnetic based on its electron configuration.

Learn how to assign oxidation numbers to keep track of the distribution of electrons during a chemical reaction.

Learn about the origins of the orbital name abbreviations s, p, d, f used to describe the angular momentum quantum numbers.

s, p, d, and f are orbital names that stand for sharp, principal, diffuse, and fundamental. This summary tells more about orbitals and electronic structure.

The p orbital is a volume of space where an electron is most likely to be found. Here's what it looks like.

Take a look at the probability distrubution of the s orbital, a volume of space describing the likely location of an electron.