Order of Naming Electron Configurations

[Seungyeon_Chi_1K]

Hello, does it matter how you order your electron configurations? Would it be wrong if it was 4s^2 3d^10 when it could be 3d^10 4s^2?

[Evangelina_0ca]

Hello!

Since orbitals are occupied in a specific order it is important to follow the such order when assigning electrons. Therefore, I believe the correct way would be 4s^23d^10 because 4s orbital has a lower energy than the 3d, and so it would have to be in this order. Hope this helps!

[Manav Patel 3L]

I'm not quite exactly sure, but I believe that putting them in a different order goes against the "unspoken" rules of chemistry.

[irisgu]

Hi, this is a great question. If the problem specifies finding the ground-state electron configuration, I would fill the lower orbitals first before moving onto higher orbitals.

[006045281]

Hello! good question. I am pretty sure it does matter which order you put the electron configuration in because it is supposed to be ordered from lower energy levels to higher energy levels, for example putting 2s^2 before 1s^2 technically would not make sense. However, in the example that you gave though, professor Lavelle does explain in lecture, that the 3d shell should be filled before you move to 4s because in this case specifically the 3d orbital of transition metals happens to be lower in energy than the 4s, but that is probably the only exception when it come to the ordering of electron configuration. It is probably best to follow the order of the chart.

[DevanCornelio_1I]

The first way is in terms of the ascending levels of energy, while the second way is in terms of the ascending orbital numbers.