Question

Chlorine is an element of atomic number 17. It is a mixture of two isotopes having a mass number of 35 and 37.

Write down the electronic configuration of the chlorine atom.

Answer 1

• The electronic configuration of an element describes how electrons are distributed in its atomic orbitals.
• It is given on the basis of the number of electrons present in an atom.
• The electrons are filled in the increasing number of shells viz. K,L,M,N,etc

Electronic configuration of chlorine atom-

• Chlorine(Cl) has atomic number 17.
• In a neutral chlorine atom there are 17 electrons and 17 protons.
• Number of electrons in a shell is given by 2n² where n is the number of shell.
• Putting n=1,2,3 and 4, we get the number of electrons 2,8,18,32 that can be filled in each shell respectively.

For chlorine, the electronic configuration is 2,8,7.