Electron Configuration of Tungsten
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vanessas0123
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Re: Electron Configuration of Tungsten
It's a weird exception which intuition cannot help you out with very much as far as I know. Some rare earth metals are similarly bizarre. See this article for the in depth explanation: http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/20 ... .Ch.r.html
Points 3 and 4 explain tungsten: "As you go down the periodic table, the s-orbitals get lower in energy relative to other atomic orbitals of the same main shell. This is called a 'relativistic contraction' . . . Because of this effect, the 6s orbital is lower in energy relative to the 5d orbital than the 5s is relative to 4d or the 4s to 3d. Thus, the energy gained by not shoving two electrons into the 6s orbital, plus that from a half-filled 5d subshell, is not enough to compensate for promoting an electron from 6s to 5d."
Points 3 and 4 explain tungsten: "As you go down the periodic table, the s-orbitals get lower in energy relative to other atomic orbitals of the same main shell. This is called a 'relativistic contraction' . . . Because of this effect, the 6s orbital is lower in energy relative to the 5d orbital than the 5s is relative to 4d or the 4s to 3d. Thus, the energy gained by not shoving two electrons into the 6s orbital, plus that from a half-filled 5d subshell, is not enough to compensate for promoting an electron from 6s to 5d."
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