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Question about HW#2.37

Posted: Sun May 06, 2018 12:42 pm
by Eugene Chung 3F
2.37 Which of the following statements are true for many- electron atoms? If false, explain why. (a) The effective nuclear charge Zeff is independent of the number of electrons present
in an atom. (b) Electrons in an s-orbital are more effective than those in other orbitals at shielding other electrons from the nuclear charge because an electron in an s-orbital can penetrate to the nucleus of the atom. (c) Electrons having l 2 are better at shielding than electrons having l 1. (d) Zeff for an electron in a p-orbital is lower than for an electron in an s-orbital in the same shell.

For part b, in the solutions manual, it says that electrons in s orbital can penetrate to the nucleus of an atom. What does it mean to penetrate to the nucleus?

Re: Question about HW#2.37

Posted: Sun May 06, 2018 1:44 pm
by Miya Lopez 1I
When it says an electron in the s-orbital can penetrate to the nucleus of an atom, penetration is describing how close an electron can get to the nucleus. On this website, https://chem.libretexts.org/Core/Physic ... _Shielding , it states that "In a multi-electron system, electron penetration is defined by an electron's relative electron density (probability density) near the nucleus of an atom." It goes on to say that a 2s electron has more density than a 2p electron. So that means the 2s electron is "penetrating" the nucleus more than the 2p electron. I suppose the 2s electron can basically get closer to the nucleus than the 2p electron can.