What is the electron configuration for silicon (Si)?

1 Answer
May 25, 2018

Well, silicon has #14# electrons.

Explanation:

We first start by writing the closest noble gas to silicon which has less electrons that it, so that noble gas is neon, which has #10# electrons.

The configuration becomes:

#[Ne]#

Still, there are #4# electrons left over. The next shell that will come up is the #3s# shell, which can hold #2# electrons. Filling it out, we get:

#[Ne]3s^2#

Finally comes the #3p# shell, which can hold #6# electrons. But since here there are only #2# extra electrons left over, it'll hold #2# of them. So, the final configuration is:

#[Ne]3s^2\3p^2#