d and f orbital configurations

[Matthew Nguyen 2F]

What's funky about the d orbital is that it starts at 3d despite it being positioned on the periodic table on the fourth row/period. For the f orbitals, it's hard to tell how it works seeing as it's disconnected from the main periodic table and put on the bottom. Is there something similar to the d orbital configurations for the f orbital configurations ? If so, how would it work?

[Sanjana Sivakumar 2E]

Hello!

I think the f-block has a similar trend. And I think it starts with 4f even though it is in the 6th row/period. Here's a picture so you can better visualize it!

Hope this helps!

[Darren Apostol 2L]

It really is funky. Aside from the s-orbital, the rest of the orbitals seem to take two rows before the next letter orbital starts. So aside from the s-orbital which takes one, periods 2-3 add p, 4-5 add d, and 6-7 add f. d-orbitals and f-orbitals seem to follow (n-1)d and (n-2)f respectively. What's interesting is that the next row to be added, period 8, should have g-orbitals which have never been seen in ground-state atoms. The electrons would fill in (n-3)g, or 5g for the 8th row. This row, and the 9th, would comprise the g-block.

[Chris Oh 2I]

It is easier to try to figure out electron configurations if you use the arrow diagram chart!

This gives a general idea of how the orbitals fill up, which aligns with how 4s fills up before 3d!