How many valence shell electrons are there in a ground state silicon atom?
Am i suppose to just count the electrons after the core electrons?
http://environmentalchemistry.com/yogi/periodic/Si.html#Atomic
count the number of electrons in the outer energy level.
To determine the number of valence shell electrons in a ground state silicon atom, you need to understand the electron configuration of silicon.
The electron configuration of silicon is 1s² 2s² 2p⁶ 3s² 3p².
Here's how you can determine the number of valence electrons:
1. Identify the highest principal quantum number (n) in the electron configuration. In this case, it is 3.
2. Count the total number of electrons in all the shells up to the highest principal quantum number. In this case, you would add up the electrons in the 1st (2 electrons), 2nd (8 electrons), and 3rd (8 electrons) shells, yielding a total of 18 electrons.
3. Subtract this total from the total number of electrons in the atom to determine the number of valence electrons. For silicon, the atomic number is 14, indicating that it has 14 electrons. Subtracting the 18 electrons from the total number of electrons in the atom, you get 14 - 18 = -4.
However, a negative number of valence electrons doesn't make sense. This discrepancy arises because silicon actually forms covalent bonds, resulting in four valence electrons that can participate in bond formation. So, the corrected answer is that silicon has four valence shell electrons in its ground state.