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Helium has only two electrons, and they share one orbital (forming a complementary pair).

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Why is helium stable with a different arrangement?

All noble gases have completely filled orbitals. Helium has two valence electrons and its s-orbital is full and is stable. Other noble gases have completely fill p-orbitals as the valence orbitals.


Is helium diatomic?

No. First consider two helium atoms, each has two electrons spin-paired in a filled 1s shell, for a total of 4 electrons. Now construct the molecular orbitals that a diatomic helium molecule would contain. To do so, you combine both 1s orbitals from the individual atoms. Combining two atomic orbitals gives two molecular orbitals (by orbital conservation). The in-phase overlap gives the bonding orbital (sigma 1s) and out-of-phase overlap gives the anti-bonding orbital (sigma* 1s). Filling in the two molecular orbitals from low energy to high energy (aufbau principle) populates the simga with two electrons and the sigma* with two electrons. Because the energy of the sigma and sigma* orbitals are equal, but opposite in sign, there is no net bond stabilization. I.e. no physical reason for Helium atoms to exist as diatomic molecules.


How many orbitals does zinc have?

In theory all elements have all the orbitals. Zinc has electrons in four of them.


How many orbitals in a phosphorus atom?

There are 9 occupied orbitals in a phosphorus atom's ground state: one 1s orbital, one 2s orbital, three 2p orbitals, one 3s orbital, and three 3p orbitals.


How many orbitals do the electrons of Beryllium occupy?

The electrons in beryllium occupy a total of four orbitals. Beryllium has 4 electrons, which fill the 1s, 2s, and 2p orbitals.