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CH1012
ORBITALS
The atomic orbitals
have characteristic electron
probability distribution patterns
that are not all spherical.
that are not all spherical.
• The ground state inner-most orbital is
spherically symmetric and this is referred to
as an s-orbital.
spherically symmetric and this is referred to
as an s-orbital.
• Higher energy orbitals may have this
s-orbital shape or they may have more complicated p-orbital or d-orbital shapes.
s-orbital shape or they may have more complicated p-orbital or d-orbital shapes.
• The p-and d-orbitals have fixed orientations wrt the x,y,z axes. eg. px, py, dz2
