Nuclear/electron configurations

Despite its very simple electronic configuration (Is ) hydrogen can, paradoxically, exist in over 50 different forms most of which have been well characterized. This multiplicity of forms arises firstly from the existence of atomic, molecular and ionized species in the gas phase H, H2, H+, H , H2" ", H3+. .., H11 + secondly, from the existence of three isotopes, jH, jH(D) and jH(T), and correspondingly of D, D2, HD, DT, etc. and, finally, from the existence of nuclear spin isomers for the homonuclear diatomic species. 

The stability of the electronic configuration is indicated by the fact that each element has the highest ionization energy in its period, though the value decreases down the group as a result of increasing size of the atoms. For the heavier elements is it actually smaller than for first-row elements such as O and F with consequences for the chemical reactivities of the noble gases which will be considered in the next section. Nuclear properties, particularly for xenon, have been exploited for nmr spectroscopy and Mdssbauer... 

A few studies are starting to claim correlations between nuclear structure and electronic configurations such as the occurrence of anomalous configurations in atoms [41-43]. 

All the elements in a main group have in common a characteristic valence electron configuration. The electron configuration controls the valence of the element (the number of bonds that it can form) and affects its chemical and physical properties. Five atomic properties are principally responsible for the characteristic properties of each element atomic radius, ionization energy, electron affinity, electronegativity, and polarizability. All five properties are related to trends in the effective nuclear charge experienced by the valence electrons and their distance from the nucleus. 

The physical and chemical properties of the elements show regular periodic trends that can be explained using electron configurations and nuclear charges. We focus on the physical properties of the elements in this section. A preliminary discussion of the chemical properties of some of the elements appears in Section Other chemical properties are discussed after we introduce the principles of chemical bonding in Chapters 9 and 10. 

Electron configurations for these molecules lead to a guideline for molecular orbital configurations based on average nuclear charge, average ... 

It is finally assumed that with all force constants and potential functions correctly specified in terms of the electronic configuration of the molecule, the nuclear arrangement that minimizes the steric strain corresponds to the observed structure of the isolated (gas phase) molecule. In practice however, the adjustable parameters, in virtually all cases, are chosen to reproduce molecular structures observed by solid-state diffraction methods. The parameters are therefore conditioned by the crystal environment and the minimized structure corresponds to neither gas phase nor isolated molecule [109],... 

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