In Chemistry: what is the S, P and D-block all about?

Question

I'm being asked to outline the structure with reference to the 'fundamental particles' in each of these elements, and give electronic structure in terms of s, p and d notation??

Here are the 3 elements: Sodium, Fluorine, and Vanadium.
For Vanadium I wrote 'As it's a D block element it holds 5 orbitals in it's sub-level, and can hold a maximum of 10 on each one'

Ma teacher doesnt understand where im gettin this from.. any help?
Give me info. on sub-levels, S,P + D blocks.. and anything else that's appropriate for this question.

Answer 1

S P and D blocks refer to the area of the periodic table where an element is located. So, the first two columns are the S block, the last six (on the right) are P blocks and the transition metals are the D block elements.

Sodium (first column) is an S block because its last electron is found in an S orbital. Fluorine is a P block because its last electron is in a P orbital. Vanadium is a D block element because it is located in the transition metals section of the periodic table.

If you want to write the electronic structure for sodium, it would be:
1s^2 2s^2 2p^6 3s^1

Fluorine's would be:
1s^2 2s^2 2p^5

Vanadium's would be:
1s^2 2s^2 2p^6 3s^2 3p^6 4s^2 3d^3

Answer 2

For a general over view wiki it

otherwise keep reading:

The notation of s,p, and d are electron orbitals, in which its a location of space somewhere "orbiting" around the nuclei, however in real terms its not revolving but actually floats in the space designated as s, p, or d.

These letters by themselves tell us nothing about where the electrons are stashed. since there are hundreds of electrons. That is why you see 4p2 with a four in front telling which energy lvl the s,p, or d they belong to.

Each orbital can only hold a certain amount of electrons, s=2, p= 6, and d = I forgot.

General how to: each previous orbital must fill up on electrons before any further electron orbitals are created. noble gases have a full outer orbital. the numbers before the letters correspond to the energy lvl, and the number afterwards corresponds to the amount of electrons in that orbital. There is a chart on wiki with arrows on it, that chart represents which orbitals must be filled first before moving on with the other orbitals. Edit: as the person explained the periodic table setup corresponds to the energy level and # of electrons, you can calculate the letter by looking at the # of electrons in the outher "shell"

Theres also things called hybrid orbitals but I'm not getting into that because by the sounds of it your still learning the basics

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

there u go honey
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D_block


btw, tell ur teacher that i helped u out