Excited Electron States
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Excited Electron States
Just to clarify, when looking at electron configurations, to determine whether it represents an excited or ground state you would just compare the configuration given to what you would expect the ground state to appear as, right? If it does not match with the ground state you would expect it is considered excited, right?
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Re: Excited Electron States
Yes, that is what I also got from the lectures. It makes sense because if you see that electrons have been "moved" to a higher orbital before filling the lower orbital, then that atom is in an excited state, which would be different than the ground-state electron configuration.
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Re: Excited Electron States
Yes, recall that there are rules for which shells and subshells will be filled first based on their energies (the order is 1s 2s 2p 3s, etc.) These rules will almost always apply. (There are some exceptions to the rules due to the fact that, in some cases, paired electrons are more stable than unpaired electrons while in other cases it is the opposite.) Therefore, if an electron is excited, it will be in a higher shell or subshell than it should be and the electron configuration will not match the ground state.
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