Answer to Question #316983 in General Chemistry for Suz

Question

How many electrons can fill the p-subshell

Answer 1

Answer: 6 electrons

In chemistry and atomic physics, an electron shell, or a principal energy level, may be thought of as an orbit followed by electrons around an atom's nucleus. Each shell can contain only a fixed number of electrons: The first shell can hold up to two electrons, the second shell can hold up to eight (2 + 6) electrons, the third shell can hold up to 18 (2 + 6 + 10) and so on. Each shell consists of one or more subshells, and each subshell consists of one or more atomic orbitals.

Each subshell is constrained to hold 4ℓ + 2 electrons at most, namely:

Each s subshell holds at most 2 electrons

Each p subshell holds at most 6 electrons

Each d subshell holds at most 10 electrons

Each f subshell holds at most 14 electrons

Each g subshell holds at most 18 electrons