Electron subshell

An electron subshell is a division of a larger electron shell based on energy levels. Energy subshells identified by the angular momentum quantum number, <math>l</math>. They can also be described using spectroscopic notation:

Angular momentum quantum number	Spectroscopic notation	Spectroscopic name
0	s	Sharp
1	p	Principal
2	d	Diffuse
3	f	Fundamental

Spectroscopic notation originates from before a quantum model of the hydrogen atom, where in the spectrum of hydrogen it was noticed that the lines had different shapes. Subshells of with an angular momentum number greater than 3 are represented by the letters after f, so <math>l=4</math> corresponds to the g subshell and so on.

Each subshell corresponds to a particular shape of the location in which electrons can be found, for example the s subshells take the shape of a sphere while the p subshells take the shape of a dumbbell. The number of electrons that can be held in each subshell varies, with s holding 2, p holding 6, d holding 10 and f holding 14. It can be seen that the maximum number of electrons a subshell can have is <math>4l+2</math>. Generally electrons around an atom are primarily divided in energy levels by shell and then subshell, although this is not always the case (for instance the 3d subshell is of a higher energy level than the 4s subshell).

See also

• Atom
• Orbital