What is the shorthand notation for a ground-state silicon (Si) atom?

1 Answer
Mar 29, 2018

[Ne] 3s^2 3p^2

Explanation:

Silicon (ground state) has 14 electrons. Using this information and the electron configuration table:
http://www.dummies.com/education/science/chemistry/writing-electron-configurations/http://www.dummies.com/education/science/chemistry/writing-electron-configurations/
We know that Silicon's full electron configuration is 1s^2 2s^2 2p^6 3s^2 3p^2

To write the short-hand notation we simply look for the noble gas that can fit silicon, in this case it would be neon with 10 electrons.

So we can rewrite 1s^2 2s^2 2p^6 3s^2 3p^2 as:
[Ne] 3s^2 3p^2