d orbitals

[Brett Lieuallen 2A]

Could I have some help reviewing d orbitals? Each d orbital can only hold two electrons (i.e. up and down arrow), but there are 5 orbitals for d because it makes up 3-12 right?

[SophiaJenny3I]

Hi! So any orbital, as well as a d orbital, can only hold a max of 2 electrons and these electrons must have opposite spins. If you're a visual person, it helps to look at the periodic table. The d subshells are basically represented by the transition metals. Each row of transition metals has 10 elements, which are differentiated by a single electron when compared side to side (in the ground state). Thus, there are 10 electrons in the d subshell, with 2 per orbital, making 5 orbitals. Hope this helps!

[Chesca Legaspi 2E]

Another good thing to know about d-orbitals is that they allow elements to produce expanded octets. Because of this, elements in the third row or below in the periodic table can have an expanded octet. This is because, for n = 3, d-orbitals can accommodate more electrons by participating in bonding with other atoms, producing an expanded octet.

[Carly_Lipschitz_3H]

Yes, you are right. S-,p-,d-, and f- orbitals can all hold up to 2 electrons in each orbital. Since there are 10 elements in the d-block of the periodic table, there are 10 electrons in the d-subshell. Since each orbital can hold 2 electrons maximum, there are 5 orbitals in total for this specific block.

[CesarLec1]

Hi, so each orbital including d orbitals can hold up to max of 2 electrons due to the pauli exclusion principle. It happens to be 5 due to the ml being -2,-1,0,1,2 and the periodic table in the transition metal area can help visualize that.

[Jeremy Wei 2C]

Yeah you are correct! It doesn't matter if it's s-, p-, d-, or f- each orbital will have a max of 2 electrons. And if we look at the d-block of the periodic table, we can count that there are 10 electrons total in the d subshell, with a total of 5 orbitals. Hope this helps!

[Samudrala_Vaishnavi 3A]

So basically, d orbitals are only present and empty in the elements from the 3rd period to beyond. This is especially useful to know for Lewis structures since that means the central atom can hold more than eight electrons forming something greater than an octet. The orbital itself has one node (where there are no electrons) and exists on the x,y, and z-axis in any orientation. For the d orbital, n=3, l=2, and me=-2,-1,0,1,2 (tells us the number of orbitals) so there are five with 10 electrons that can fill these orbitals in total (d^10).

[205323697]

When we write the abbreviated form for an atom, what rules are good to remember when dealing with the d block?

[Angela Harrington 2L]

Each orbital can hold up to 2 electrons. The d-block has 5 orbitals, which means it can hold up to a total of 10 electrons. I hope this is helpful!

[Rainy Liu Ruoshui_2K]

You're correct! No matter what shell and subshell an orbital is in, it can only have two electrons in it, one spinning upwards and one downwards. d-subshell has 5 orbitals, each in xy, yz,zx, x^2-y^2, z^2.

[Veronica Larson- 1I]

Yes, that's right! If you look at the d-block (the transition metals on the periodic table) you'll notice that there are 10 of them, and since each orbital holds 2 electrons with opposite spins, then it makes sense that there are 5 orbitals total in the d- subshell.

[kiara chan]

just rememeber that each orbital can ONLY hold 2 electrons
since d has 5 orbitals (5*2=10), there can be 10 electrons held in a d orbital
same thing for f or p orbitals; f has 7 orbitals so it can hold 14 and p has 3 orbitals so it can hold 6