Beryllium Electron Configuration:Everything You Need to Know

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Beryllium is a chemical element of group IIA in the periodic table showing typical s-group. Its chemical symbol is Be.

The electronic configuration of Be is [He]2s2. Beryllium is a soft, lustrous, silvery-white alkaline earth metal. It is of very low abundance (2-6 ppm) in the earth’s crust and is generally found in the form of silicates. It forms a hexagonal close-packing lattice. Be2+ largely forms covalent compounds. 

We will discuss the electronic arrangement of Beryllium with a detailed explanation of its ground state configuration, orbital diagram and many other related topics in this article.

How to write Beryllium electron configuration?

The electron configuration of Be is written with the help of shell number, subshell number, and three basic principles as follows- 

  • Be has a total of 4 electrons. It is placed in the second period, and the second group in the periodic table.
  • Electrons are filled in the ‘n’ shell following the 2n2 rule. (n=1, 2, 3, … ). In Be, when n=1 (K- shell), a total of 2 electrons will be in K-shell, and the rest 2 electrons will be in L-shell (n=2).
  • Arrange the electrons in the subshells following Aufbau Principle, Pauli’s exclusion principle, and Hund’s rule. The lowest energy orbital will be filled first, and subsequently, the higher energy orbitals as per the Aufbau rule. Hund’s rule is imposed to take care of the electronic arrangements with maximum spin multiplicity. It is applied to achieve the lowest energy possible for an orbital. Pauli’s exclusion principle is applied to the direction of spin of multiple electrons in an orbital.
  • The electron configuration of Be is 1s22s2.

 Beryllium electron configuration diagram

The electron configuration diagram of Be is shown below,

Be electron configuration
Electron Configuration of Beryllium

Beryllium electron configuration notation

The electronic configuration notation of Be is [He] 2s2. The notation is comprised of 4 electrons. Two electrons come from the noble gas atom Helium, and the other two come from the 2s orbital. It is also referred to as the Be electron configuration in its shortened form.

Beryllium unabbreviated electron configuration

The unabbreviated electron configuration of Be is 1s22s2. The unabbreviated electron configuration of Be includes all the beginning and valence electrons. So, a total of 4 electrons are filled as-.

  • The 1s orbital containing 2 electrons.
  • The 2s orbital containing the other two.

Ground state Beryllium electron configuration 

The ground state electron configuration of Be is 1s22s2. The ground state electronic shell structure is 2.2. for Be.

Be ground state
Ground state configuration

Excited state Beryllium electron configuration

The excited state electron configuration of Be is 1s22s12p1. Here, the nearest orbital of 2s is 2p. So, one electron of 2s jumps to one of the 2p-orbital. While jumping, the spin of the electron does not change. 

Be excited state
Excited state electron configuration

Ground state Beryllium orbital diagram

The ground state orbital diagram of Be consists of K-shell and L-shell electrons. The electrons are arranged as K-level (1s) = 2, L-level (2s) = 2. The ground state term symbol for Be is 1S0. The shell diagram is shown below,

Be orbital diagram
Beryllium orbital diagram

Beryllium condensed electron configuration

The condensed electron configuration of Beryllium is [2,2]. The condensed electron configuration is another form of abbreviated electron configuration.

Conclusion 

Be is found through surface deposits of silicates: Beryl (Be3Al2Si6O18) and Phenakite (Be2SiO4). The charge density of Be2+ is exceptionally high (Z+/r ≈ 6.5, r in Å).

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