Bismuth, with the chemical symbol Bi, has an atomic number of 83. This element is located in group 5A (also known as group 15) of the periodic table and belongs to period 6.
The electron configuration for bismuth is determined by the order in which electrons fill the various atomic orbitals. The complete electron configuration for bismuth is:
1s² 2s² 2p⁶ 3s² 3p⁶ 4s² 4p⁶ 5s² 5p⁶ 4d¹⁰ 5d¹⁰ 6s² 6p³
Focusing on the valence shell, which involves the outermost electrons, we find that bismuth’s valence shell configuration can be represented by the highest principal energy level (n=6) electrons:
6s² 6p³
This shows that bismuth has two electrons in the 6s subshell and three electrons in the 6p subshell. Hence, the valence shell configuration of bismuth is 6s² 6p³. This arrangement of electrons is crucial as it determines the chemical properties and reactivity of the element.