What is the maximum number of electrons in an 3p subshell?

1 Answer
Jul 6, 2017

6!

Explanation:

For two salient reasons:

  1. The 3p subshell has three sets of lobes that carry two electrons each.
  2. By the Pauli exclusion principle, no two electrons within an atom may have the same #n, l, m_l#, or #m_s#. That's a fancy way of saying no more than two electrons may inhabit the same orbital.