Courses
Courses for Kids
Free study material
Offline Centres
More
Store Icon
Store

State the difference between a shell and a subshell?

seo-qna
Last updated date: 27th Apr 2024
Total views: 328.8k
Views today: 6.28k
Answer
VerifiedVerified
328.8k+ views
Hint: A shell is the direction that electrons take through the nucleus of an atom. Such shells are also known as energy ratios because they are arranged around the nucleus according to the energy of an electron in each shell. A subshell is the field of a shell where electrons pass. The angular momentum quantum number is used to call these.

Complete answer:
The distribution of electrons in an element's atomic orbitals is defined by its electron configuration. Atomic electron compositions follow a typical notation in which all electron-containing atomic subshells are arranged in a series (with the number of electrons they possess written in superscript).

ShellSubshell
The principal quantum number determines the cumulative number of electrons that can be accommodated in a shell $(n)$.The azimuthal quantum number (denoted by $'l'$') determines the subshells into which electrons are distributed.
The shell number is expressed by the formula $2{n^2}$, where n is the number of shells.The formula $2(2l + 1)$ gives the maximum number of electrons that can be accommodated by a subshell.
The total number of electrons that can be accommodated in K, L, M, N shells are $2,8,18,32$ respectively.The s, p, d, and f subshells each have a combined capacity of $2,6,10$ and $14$ electrons.



Note:
Since the value of the azimuthal quantum number is always less than the value of the principal quantum number, $1p,2d$ and $3f$ orbitals are not possible. The size of an orbital grows as the principal quantum number $'n'$ grows. To put it another way, the electron would be found outside of the nucleus.
Recently Updated Pages