Q.Which is more stable or ? Why ?
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →has the electron configuration , an exactly half-filled subshell, which is more stable than 's configuration due to greater exchange energy and symmetric orbital occupation.
Iron's atomic configuration is . Removing the two electrons gives : (one 3d orbital doubly occupied, four singly occupied). Removing one further electron, from a orbital, gives : — all five 3d orbitals singly occupied, i.e. exactly half-filled. A half-filled (or fully-filled) subshell has extra stability for two related reasons: (i) the electrons are distributed as symmetrically as possible across the degenerate orbitals, which minimises electron-electron repulsion, and (ii) this arrangement maximises the number of possible same-spin electron exchanges, which lowers the total energy through exchange stabilisation. Because is exactly hal …
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