How to Draw Shapes of Orbitals
Let's learn about the shapes of atomic orbitals in this video lesson created by Chemistry Guru, Singapore's leading JC Chemistry tuition centre.
1. s orbitals
There is only 1 s orbital in each s subshell.
Shape of s orbital is spherical and non-directional.
Size of s orbital increases as principal quantum number n increases.
2. p orbitals
There are 3 p orbitals in each p subshell, namely npx, npy and npz orbitals.
The orbitals are dumb-bell shaped or look like the number 8 or infinity sign ∞.
npx lies along the x-axis, npy along the y-axis and npz along the z-axis.
Orbitals in the same subshell are degenerate or have the same energy.
Size of p orbital increases as n increases.
3. d orbitals
Each d subshell has 5 degenerate orbitals, namely ndxy, ndyz, ndxz, ndx2-y2 and ndz2
Shape of ndxy, ndyz, ndxz and ndx2-y2 is cloverleaf shape with 4 loops or butterfly shaped.
Shape of ndz2 is dumb-bell shape with a ring around its centre.
ndxy lies on the xy plane, ndxz on the xz plane and ndyz on the yz plane, but they are not along the axis.
ndx2-y2 lies directly along the x and y axis.
ndz2 lies directly along the z axis.
Remember the orbitals with a square term (ndx2-y2 and ndz2) will be lying directly along the axis.
Topic: Atomic Structure, Physical Chemistry, A Level Chemistry, Singapore
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