How many electrons are in the highest energy orbital of the element copper? There is 1 in the outermost shell but what about the highest energy orbital?
the electron configuration for Cu is [Ar]3d10 4s1 so there is one electron in the hightest energy orbital (4s)
That was what I put as my answer but my teacher marked it wrong and said "this is asking for the highest energy orbital versus the outermost shell." But in my book it has 1 as the highest energy orbial:/
The element copper (Cu) is found in the 4th period and belongs to the d-block of the periodic table. Its electron configuration is [Ar] 3d¹⁰ 4s¹. In this configuration, the highest energy orbital is the 4s orbital, which contains 1 electron. The 3d orbitals, which are filled after the 4s orbital, contain a total of 10 electrons. Therefore, in the highest energy orbital of copper, there is 1 electron.
To determine the number of electrons in the highest energy orbital of an element like copper, you need to know the electron configuration of copper.
The electron configuration of copper is [Ar] 3d10 4s1. This means that copper has two energy levels: the 3rd energy level (with the electron configuration [Ar]) and the 4th energy level (with the electron configuration 3d10 4s1).
In the 4th energy level, there are two subshells: the 3d subshell and the 4s subshell. The 3d subshell has a higher energy than the 4s subshell, so in copper, the highest energy orbital is the 3d orbital.
The 3d orbital can hold a maximum of 10 electrons. Since the electron configuration of copper's 4th energy level is 3d10, it means that there are 10 electrons in the 3d orbital.
Therefore, the number of electrons in the highest energy orbital of copper is 10.