Question

How many electrons can there be in a p orbital?

Answer 1

Hint:Electrons, protons, and neutrons are the subatomic particles present in an atom.
The atomic number of a neutral atom indicates the number of electrons present in it. In the case of ions, the numbers of electrons present depend on the charge carried by ions.
The electronic configuration of an element gives information about the numbers of electrons present in the orbitals.The orbitals describe the location of electrons present in the element or atom.

Complete answer:In an atom, electrons are at a specific location known as orbitals. The four main types of these orbitals are s, p, d, and f.
Each of these orbitals contains specific numbers of electrons. In element, the shells present are K, L, M, N,….. etc. Each of these shells has sublevels that are s, p, d, and f. In these sublevels orbitals are present.
The sublevel has only one s orbital. The p sublevel contains three p-orbitals, the d sublevel contains five d-orbitals and the f sublevel has seven d-orbitals.
The p sublevel contains $${\text{p}}_{\text{x}}\text{,}{\text{p}}_{\text{y,}}$$ and $${\text{p}}_{\text{z}}$$ orbitals. Each orbital can occupy a maximum of two electrons, therefore, three p orbitals occupy a maximum of six electrons.
Thus, there is a maximum of six electrons in the p orbital.

Note:The orbitals describe the location of electrons present in the element or atom. These orbitals are used to represent the electronic configuration of the element. The electronic configuration gives the arrangement of the electron present in an element.
The four types of orbitals are s, p, d, f which differ from each other by their shape, the capacity to accommodate the maximum numbers of electrons.