Question

how many electrons occupy the pz atomic orbital in Hg? the answer is 10 and it is right but i do not understand why.

Answer 1

i know that Hg has 8 electrons in the pz orbital by looking at the periodic table but i do not know where are those 2 extra electrons coming from

Answer 2

I'm assuming this is for mercury in its ground state. There are only 4 Pz orbitals so 8 electrons total. My assumption is that they included the fictional 1 Pz orbital, which doesn't actually exist but for some reason certain textbooks still include it

Answer 3

really because my teacher said the answer was correct and told us to figure out why it is like that

Answer 4

@Silent_Sorrow

Answer 5

Well mercury has the electron config:
1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 3d10 4s2 4p6 5s2 4d10 5p6 4f14 5d10 6s2
So the valence p orbital has a value of n=5, this here is the 5pz obitals http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:P5M0.png
Sorry I can't remember the rest from there it's been a while since I've touched this stuff.

Answer 6

ok then thanku anyway