So say if we're doing an electronic configuration for the element "Lead", We would do [Xe] 6s^2 and 4F^14, but we still need to add in the "d" block. Would it be 5d^9 or 5d^10?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_configuration#/media/File:Electron_orbitals.svg << the order of filling
[Xe] 4f14 5d10 6s2 6p2 the order of writing (others write in the order of filling)
To determine the correct electronic configuration of lead, we need to refer to the periodic table. Lead is located in the "p-block" (Group 14) of the periodic table. The atomic number of lead is 82, which means it has 82 electrons.
The electronic configuration of an element is a representation that shows how the electrons are distributed in its atomic orbitals. The basic electronic configuration for lead starts with the noble gas previous to it, which is xenon (Xe). Xenon has the electronic configuration [Kr] 5s^2 4d^10 5p^6.
Lead follows xenon, so we start with [Xe], representing the xenon core electrons. After the xenon core, we fill in the remaining electrons in the 6s and 5d orbitals.
The 6s orbital can hold a maximum of 2 electrons, and since we have 2 electrons in the 6s^2 configuration, we can continue to the 5d orbitals.
Now, the 5d orbital can hold up to 10 electrons. However, in the case of lead, the filling order suggests that one electron from the 6s orbital is promoted to the 5d orbital, resulting in a full 5d^10 configuration. This is known as the "Aufbau principle," which dictates that electrons fill the orbitals in order of increasing energy level.
Hence, the correct electronic configuration for lead is [Xe] 6s^2 5d^10 6p^2.