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

1 Answer
Stefan V. · Surbhi Goel
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.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.

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