The orbital diagram for iron (Fe) represents the distribution of electrons in the atomic orbitals of an iron atom. Iron has an atomic number of 26, which means it has 26 electrons.
To write the orbital diagram, we follow the Aufbau principle, which states that electrons will fill the lowest energy orbitals first, Hund’s rule, which states that electrons will fill degenerate orbitals singly before pairing up, and the Pauli exclusion principle, which states that no two electrons can have the same set of quantum numbers.
The electron configuration for iron can be written as:
1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 4s2 3d6
The orbital diagram can be visualized as follows:
1s: ↑↓ 2s: ↑↓ 2p: ↑↓ ↑↓ ↑↓ 3s: ↑↓ 3p: ↑↓ ↑↓ ↑↓ 4s: ↑↓ 3d: ↑↓ ↑↑ ↑
In this diagram:
- Each box represents an atomic orbital.
- An up arrow (↑) represents an electron with spin-up, while a down arrow (↓) represents an electron with spin-down.
- Electrons in the 3d orbitals show that there are six electrons in that subshell, with elements filling the orbitals according to Hund’s rule.
This orbital diagram concisely shows how the electrons are arranged in iron, indicating its electron configuration and helping to understand its chemical properties.