Question

How does the oxygen Electron configuration change in water, H2O?

Does does one Electron from S2 jump to a P orbital?

Or do both S2 electrons jump to the P orbitals?

Answer 1

Ans 1.

The atomic number of Oxygen is 8 , such that it has 8 electrons , 4 core and 4 valence .

The core electrons are present in 1s and 2s orbitals and the valence electrons are present in 2p orbitals , such that the electronic configuration is 1s2 2s2 2p4.

The water molecule contains 2 atoms of hydrogen and 1 atom of oxygen . Since oxygen has 2 electrons less than the stable noble gas configuration, it shares its 2 electrons with 2 hydrogen atoms forming single bonds with each of them and the configuration then becomes 1s2 2s2 2p6.