Question

In a Xe atom, which atomic shell would experience the largest effective nuclear charge?
(a) 1s
(b) 3p
(c) 6d
(d) 5p

Answer 1

Hint: The nuclear charge refers to the effect of the nucleus on the orbit and the orbitals. The one which is nearest to the nucleus will have the highest effect of the nucleus i.e. largest effective nuclear charge and vice-versa. Now you can easily answer the given statement accordingly.

Complete answer:
- First of all, let’s discuss the effective nuclear charge. By the term effective nuclear charge, we mean the effect of the nucleus on the electrons of the orbits and the orbitals.
- Xeon is a gas which comes under the category of the noble gases and has the atomic number as 54 and mass number as 131.
- It has the outer electron configuration as; $4d^{10}5s^{2}5p^6$ .
Now considering the statement as;
- The orbital which will be nearest will have the highest effect of the nucleus i.e. will have high nuclear charge.
- So, among all the above given orbitals,1s orbitals is the nearer to the nucleus and will have the largest effective nuclear charge.
Hence, option ‘(a) 1s’ is correct.

Note: The orbitals which are nearer to the nucleus will have more effect on the nucleus i.e. they will have a high effective nuclear charge. On the other hand, the orbitals which are far away to the nucleus will have less effect on the nucleus i.e. they will have low effective nuclear charge.