Nodal Planes

[Ryan Danis 1J]

So the book says that nodal planes separate the two lobes of a p-orbital where the wave function is 0. How come s orbitals do not have a nodal plane?

[Elisa Bass 4L]

S-orbitals fully encompass the area around the nucleus. There is no area surrounding the nucleus in an s-orbital where the probability of finding an electron is 0, which is what a nodal plane defines, so there is no nodal plane for the s-orbital.

[Ian Marquez 2K]

Also, if you look at the shape of an s-orbital when graphed out, you see on the axis that there are no spots on any of the axis planes where electrons cannot be present. Nodal planes denote where electrons cannot be observed, but since the s-orbital is a sphere that encompasses all the axes, there are no nodal planes.

[isarose0]

How do you determine how many subshells there are from an n value, for example if n = 3, how can you determine subshells from this?

[Archana Biju 1G]

How do you determine how many subshells there are from an n value, for example if n = 3, how can you determine subshells from this?

Subshells are basically the angular momentum l, and l is n-1. So, for this case l = 2 and the subshells would be 0,1,2.

[Lorena Zhang 4E]

The shape of s orbital is spherically symmetrical and there is no point of region where you can find that the electron probability density is zero.

[KarlaArevalo2F]

So the book says that nodal planes separate the two lobes of a p-orbital where the wave function is 0. How come s orbitals do not have a nodal plane?

s orbitals do not have a nodal plane because it is the only orbital that has a symmetrical electron probability distribution and is a spherical shape, unlike the others which are shaped more like lobes.