4s and 3d

[005493723]

I am still kind of confused on whether the 4s or 3d orbital loses electrons first and also how to write it out when writing electron configurations.

[Natasha]

The 4s would lose electrons first and you would write the electron configuration with 3d first and then 4s.

[Nomi Heidari-Bateni 2K]

Although the 3d orbital would lose electrons first, the order in which they are written in an electron configuration is in increasing n values, thus the 3d orbital is written before the 4s orbital.

[Lucy Farnham 1G]

Even though we write 3d before 4s, there are certain times when the 4s orbital fills up before the 3d orbital because it has a lower energy.

[Eszter Kovacs 1A]

The 3d subshell has a higher energy level than 4s so it would come first when writing the electron configuration for a given element. 4s electrons are also lost first.

[Junyong Wu]

The 4s has lower energy than 3d, it needs to be filled first, but after it is filled, it has higher energy than 3d, then 3d is written before 4s. And 4s will lose electron first.

[Xiang Li 2F]

4s has lower energy than 3d, and the order to write 4s and 3d in the electron configuration doesn't matter. You can either write 4s first then 3d, or 3d in front of 4s.

[Joseph Liao 3C]

In general, the orbital with the higher quantum number would lose its electrons first, then you would consider the s,p,d, with p losing electrons before s. This is because the higher orbitals orbit further away from the nucleus, and so electrons that leave the atom would come from the furthest orbitals first, as they are the easiest to remove.

[Veronica Larson- 1I]

The 4s shell has lower energy than 3d until it is filled, and then when the 4s does get filled it actually has higher energy, so gets written after the 3d.

[Kaira Shibata 1E]

I am still kind of confused on whether the 4s or 3d orbital loses electrons first and also how to write it out when writing electron configurations.

4s electrons will be lost first; however, when you write the electron configurations you would write 3d first.