6f orbital

[Monica Soliman 3F]

In the textbook, it asks about the subshells that can not exist. I thoughts 6f is one of them, however, in the answer, it does. How is that possible? Isn't there only 2 f rows 4f and 5f?

[IsaacLaw1E]

If n = 6, than l can equal any value from 0 to 5, including 3. l = 3 corresponds with an f subshell, so 6f subshells can exist. The reason why there isn't a sixth row on the periodic table is because there aren't discovered elements that can have ground states with electrons in the 6f subshell. Those would require a lot more electrons than the elements we have on the table. But the subshell can still exist.

[Hazelle Gunawan 3G]

Yep, exactly as above! 6f doesn't exist as far as we know right now, but it's still theoretically possible.

[Hailey Kang 2K]

Hi!

This is possible because when the principle quantum number is n=6, all the l values can be 0-5. l=3 means the f subshell, which is where you would get the 6f.