Atomic Orbitals

What does an atom look like?

An atom has a nucleus of protons and neutrons
surrounded by electrons. The electrons are often
1s pictured circling the nucleus like planets orbiting
the sun. This picture is useful but not very
realistic.
K In reality, the position of an electron is known only as a cloud of
probability called an orbital. Orbitals have wondrous shapes described
0 by the Schrdinger wave equation from quantum physics. Only two
electrons are allowed to occupy each orbital, so atoms with many
2s 2p electrons have many different overlapping orbitals. Orbitals are
grouped into shells (1=K, 2=L, etc.) and subshells (1s, 2p, etc.), with
smaller shells surrounded by and permeated by larger shells. The
L fundamental orbitals are shown here, but there are many more hybrid
orbitalscombinations of the fundamental orbitalswith other
marvelous shapes.
0 0 1
An orbital may be pictured as a probability
3s 3p 3d density distribution (a fuzzy cloud) or as a
surface of constant probability (a bulgy
blob). The cloud picture is closer to reality,
M but the blob picture shows the three
dimensional structure more clearly.

0 0 1 0 1 2

4s 4p 4d 4f

0 0 1 0 1 2 0 1 2 3

5s 5p 5d 5f

0 0 1 0 1 2 0 1 2 3

6s 6p 6d 1s 1s
2s 2p
P 3s 3p
4s 3d 4p
5s 4d 5p
0 0 1 0 1 2
6s 5d 6p
7s 7p 7s 6d 7p

4f
Q 5f
Periodic table of the elements showing
0 0 1 the order in which the subshells are lled.

Orbitals rendered with Orbital Viewer 2007-2016 Keith Enevoldsen elements.wlonk.com

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