How many orbitals are in the 3d subshell?
1 Answer
Five.
Explanation:
The important thing to realize here is that there's nothing special about the 3d-subshell in terms of the number of orbitals it contains.
The d-subshell contains five orbitals regardless of the energy level on which the subshell is located - as long as
Each subshell is characterized by a distinct value of the angular momentum quantum number,
The relationshop between the principal quantum number,
#l = 0, 1, 2, ..., n-1#
and
#m_l = -l, -(l-1), ..., -1, 0, 1, ..., (l-1), l#
Now, the d-subshell is described by
#m_l = {-2; -1; 0; 1; 2}#
Therefore, the 3d-subshell will contain a total of five 3d-orbitals.
Likewise, the 4d-subshell will contain a total of five 4d-orbitals, the 5d-subshell will contain a total of five 5d-orbitals, and so on.