TCE

The Chemical Educator

ISSN: 1430-4171 (electronic version)

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Abstract Volume 24 (2019) pp 114-117

Determining the Atomic Term Symbols of the d² and f² Electron Configurations in Minutes or Seconds with Scientific Rigor

Yingbin Ge

Department of Chemistry, Central Washington University, Ellensburg, Washington 98926, yingbin@cwu.edu
Received May 21, 2019. Accepted August 29, 2019.

Published: 22 September 2019

Abstract. In physical and inorganic chemistry courses, determining the atomic term symbols is tedious and error-prone. Enumerating the 45 or 91 microstates of the d² or f² electron configuration and grouping them into atomic terms may take hours. In this communication, a fast approach and an ultrafast approach, both with scientific rigor, are introduced to tackle this issue.

Key Words: Laboratories and Demonstrations; general chemistry

(*) Corresponding author. (E-mail: yingbin@cwu.edu)

Article in PDF format (108 KB) HTML format

Supporting Materials:

The author’s lecture notes on determining the atomic term symbols of the d² electron configuration using one of the traditional approaches. (104 KB)

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