Question

Ground state electronic configuration of nitrogen atom can be represented by:
(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Answer 1

Hint: The question contains more than one correct option. In the orbitals or subshells present in an atom the electrons will be filled according to the electron orbital filling rules in chemistry.

Complete answer:
So in the question it is asked about the comment on the electron arrangement in the sub-shells or the orbitals of nitrogen when it is in ground state. While we were discussing the atom and its sub-shells we have studied about the charge and mass of the subatomic particles like electrons, protons and neutrons present in each atom. We are also familiar with the arrangement and its rule by which we used to fill the orbitals.
So now let us discuss briefly about the electronic arrangement of nitrogen atoms in the ground state.
We know that the atomic number of nitrogen is 7, hence there will be seven electrons present in the atom.
The ground state electronic configuration of Nitrogen atom will be $1{{s}^{2}}2{{s}^{2}}2{{p}^{3}}$.Ground state is the state which has the least energy level with maximum stability.
So now we know that there are two s orbitals with varying energy and one p orbital in N atom.
We know that each orbital could accommodate only 2 electrons, so s subshell could only accommodate 2 orbitals and in p subshell they could accommodate six electrons as it has three orbitals${{p}_{x,}}{{p}_{y}}\,and\,{{p}_{z}}$.
And according to Hund’s rule of maximum multiplicity, the filling of electrons in a subshell is in such a manner the electron should enter into an empty orbital before they pair up or we can say as all the orbitals should be partially filled before they get doubly occupied.
So in that sense all the three orbitals of p should be singly filled first and during the partial filling of the orbitals all the electrons will have the spins aligned to one direction or we can say that the unpaired electrons will have the similar spin.

Hence we could conclude that the option (a) and (d) will be the correct answer for the given question.

Note:
The filling of electrons in orbitals of an atom is based on three laws:
Afbau principle: The electrons should be filled according to the increasing order of their energy.
Huns’s rule of maximum multiplicity: All the orbitals in a subshell should be singly filled before they get doubly filled or they pair up.
Pauli’s exclusion principle- It states that no two electrons in an atom will have all the four quantum numbers similar.