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Excited-State Atom

  • Page ID
    40283
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    An excited-state atom is an atom in which the total energy of the electrons can be lowered by transferring one or more electrons to different orbitals. That is, in an excited-state atom not all electrons are in the lowest possible energy levels.

    eg. Consider a carbon atom whose electron configuration is the following.

    excitedstateatom1.png

    The total energy of the electrons in this carbon atom can be lowered by transfering an electron from a 2P orbital to the 2S orbital. Therefore, this carbon atom is an excited-state carbon atom.

    excitedstateatom2.png

    see also ground-state atom


    This page titled Excited-State Atom is shared under a All Rights Reserved (used with permission) license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Gamini Gunawardena via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.

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