Aufbau principle

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In atomic physics and quantum chemistry, the Aufbau principle (pronounced , from German: Aufbauprinzip, lit. 'building-up principle'), also called the Aufbau rule, states that in the ground state of an atom or ion, electrons first fill subshells of the lowest available energy, then fill subshells of higher energy. For example, the 1s subshell is filled before the 2s subshell is occupied. In this way, the electrons of an atom or ion form the most stable electron configuration possible. An example is the configuration 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 4s2 3d10 for the zinc atom, meaning that the 1s subshell has 2 electrons, the 2s subshell has 2 electrons, the 2p subshell has 6 electrons, and so on. The configuration is often abbreviated by writing only the valence electrons explicitly, while the core electrons are replaced by the symbol for the last previous noble gas in the periodic table, placed in square brackets. For zinc, the last previous noble gas is argon, so the configuration is abbreviated to...

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