![]() They do this by reacting with one another to gain, lose or share electrons. Chemistry can be thought of as basically a consequence of all of the elements on the periodic table trying to achieve the same number of valence electrons as one of the inert gases. All of the other elements on the periodic table would like to be like an inert gas in terms of the number of electrons they have in their valence shell. The inert gases are called inert because they are very unreactive with themselves and other elements. Even if an energy level can hold more than 8 electrons, the most stable number, is 8. (Each energy level can contain up to 2 n electrons, where n is the energy level refer to Section 3.2 and Table 3.4 in Raymond). This is because the first energy level can only hold 2 electrons, whereas the other energy levels can hold 8 or more electrons. All of the inert gases have 8 valence electrons, except helium, which has 2. These elements, as a group, are are called the inert gases. The elements that have this number in their pure neutral forms are the elements in Group VIIIA. This happens be the most stable situation for an atom. It turns out that there is something special in nature about having eight electrons in the valence shell. In the electron dot structures used here, valence electrons are shown as dots. Representative elements in the same group have the same number of valence electrons. ![]() Note that the number of valence electrons that each element has is equal to its group number, e.g., elements in Group IA have one valence electron (one dot), elements in Group IIA have two valence electrons (2 dots), etc.įigure 1 ( Figure 3.6 from Raymond ): Valence Electrons. ![]() Figure 3.6 in Raymond uses Lewis electron dot structures to show the number of valence electrons in some of the representative elements. Together, these elements are referred to as the main group or representative elements. For our discussions we will focus on the elements in the first two columns on the left-hand side of the periodic table and the last six columns on the right-hand side of the table. These are the electrons found in the highest occupied energy level or shell for an atom of an element. In Section 3.2 the concept of valence electrons was introduced.
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