Electron configuration of Silicon

Hi, my dear students today i am showing you what is the electron configuration of Silicon. As many students already asked me and also they have problem while writing electron configuration of atoms.

In this whole article we will try to teach you how you write electron configuration of silicon in steps by steps and other atoms. So, please read the whole post carefully.

Electron configuration of Silicon

Firstly, you have to know that what is the atomic number of silicon after that the next steps is know how electron goes to orbitals ( low energy orbitals to high energy orbitals )

Let’s see how i do electron configuration of Silicon.

Atomic number of silicon = 14 (atomic no. = no. of electrons)

That’s means no. of electron is 14.

Note: Electron configuration depends upon no. of electron in a atom.

Let’s have a look of orbitals or shell lower energy to higher energy level.

1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 4s2 3d10

But Silicon has only 14 electron in their orbits so, we write electron configuration until 14 electron to be filled in subshell.

Hence, the electron configuration of Silicon is 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p2

Other Way to Write is [Ne] 3s2 3p2. (Neon cover first 10 electrons)

As you looking students if you sum up all the electrons in their shell you will get 14 electrons.

Ground vs Excited State of Silicon.

Now, come to the next points. Few students also ask me what is the difference between ground state or excited state and what is electron configuration of these two? Are these two state have same electronic configuration.

let’s try to understand in details.

Firstly i want to say that ground state means neutral atom. Which means that electron are still in their natural form or in free state.

So, Electron configuration of ground state is same as previous electron configuration of silicon.

Hence, The ground state configuration if 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p2

Now, come to the next points that is excited state configuration.

The excited state means how many electron are removed or lost in the neutral atom. That means, in the case of silicon the symbol is “Si” if we remove one electron it goes +1 charge in the silicon atoms so, the notation becomes changes to Si⁺¹. Same case used for if we remove two electron in their outermost orbits then notation becomes Si⁺²

So, in this basis we write electron configuration of Si⁺¹.  This also need to be remove one electron in the low energy outermost subshell ( 1 electron remove from S orbitals).

Neutral or ground State Configuration – 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p2

Hence the electron configuration for excited state of Silicon is 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s1 3p2.

one (1) electron removed from 3s orbitals. 3s2 —-> 3s1