Question

Question #8ce42

Answer 1

Actually, arsenic has 5 electrons in its outermost shell.

Explanation:

Arsenic, `As`, is located in period 4, group 15 of the periodic table and has an atomic number equal to 33.

This means that a neutral arsenic atom has 33 electrons surrounding its nucleus. The electron configuration for arsenic looks like this

`"As": 1s^(2) 2s^(2) 2p^(6) 3s^(2) 3p^(6) 3d^(10) 4s^(2) 4p^(3)`

or, using the noble gas shorthand notation

`"As": ["Ar"] 3d^(10) 4s^(2) 4p^(3)`

As you can see, the outermost shell is the fourth shell, `n=4`. This shell contains a total of 5 electrons, 2 in the 4s-orbital and 3 in the 4p-orbitals.

Since arsenic is not a transition metal, its valence electrons will be those electrons located in its outermost shell `->` 5 valence electrons.