Question

Write the ground-state electronic configuration for a neutral carbon atom, and for an excited state of carbon.

Answer 1

Electronic configuration: Electronic configuration is the distribution of the electrons in orbitals of atoms using some basic principles like the Pauli exclusion principle and the Aufbau principle.

Ground state:

• The ground state is the state of lower energy occupied by an electron in an atomic orbital.
• The ground state is a highly stable state.

For Carbon:

• The atomic number of carbon is $6$.
• The ground state electronic configuration of neutral carbon atom is $1{\mathrm{s}}^{2}2{\mathrm{s}}^{2}2{\mathrm{p}}^2$

Excited state:

• The excited state is the state of higher energy occupied by an electron in an atomic orbital.
• The excited state is a less stable state.
• The excited-state electronic configuration of a carbon atom is $1{\mathrm{s}}^{2}2{\mathrm{s}}^{1}2{\mathrm{p}}^3$ i.e, the one electron from the $2\mathrm{s}$ orbital gets excited to the $2\mathrm{p}$orbital by absorbing some energy.