Question

How do you write the orbital diagram for carbon?

Answer 1

Hint:. Orbital diagram is the filling of the electrons into different orbitals according to the number of electrons present in an atom and an orbital consists of a maximum of two electrons. Keep in mind that the electrons in an orbital are first singly filled before pairing occurs. Now you can easily draw the orbital diagram for a carbon atom.

Complete step by step answer:
- First of let’s discuss the orbital diagram. Orbital diagram involves the distribution of the electrons in the orbitals i.e. s, p , d and f-subshells.
- An orbital can have a maximum of two electrons and the electrons are filled in the orbitals according to the Hund’s rule of maximum multiplicity and Pauli’s exclusion principle.
- According to the Hund’s rule of maximum multiplicity, electrons are first singly filled in the orbitals before pairing starts i.e. pairing of electrons occurs only after each orbital has been singly filled with the electron.
- On the other hand, according to the Pauli’s exclusion principle, two electrons in an orbital cannot have the same spin quantum number i.e. if one electron is having positive spin i.e. in clockwise direction , then other electron will have negative spin value i.e. in anticlockwise direction.
 Now considering the statement:
- Carbon is a non-metal which belongs to the p-block of the periodic table. It occupies the 14th group and 2nd period of the periodic table.
- The atomic number of carbon atoms is 6 and the mass number of oxygen atoms is 12.
- The electronic configuration of carbon atom is as: $1{{s}^{2}}2{{s}^{2}}p_{x}^{1}p_{y}^{1}$.
- The orbital diagram for carbon is as:

Note: Orbital is the three-dimensional space around the nucleus where probability of finding the electrons is maximum and an orbital can accommodate a maximum of two electrons.