How many unpaired electrons does an atom of sulfur have in its ground state?

1 Answer
Jul 2, 2016

2 electrons

Explanation:

Its configuration will be

"S: " 1s^2 2s^2 2p^6 3s^2 3p^4

The p subshell can accommodate a maximum of 6 electrons, but here it holds 4 electrons, which means that sulfur has 2 unpaired electrons, both located in the p-subshell.

http://kaffee.50webs.com/Science/activities/Chem/Activity.Electron.Configuration.htmlhttp://kaffee.50webs.com/Science/activities/Chem/Activity.Electron.Configuration.html

Sulfur will have a pair of electrons in the 1st 3p orbital, 1 electron in the 2nd 3p orbital, and 1 electron in the 3rd 3p orbital.