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Chlorine is classified as a nonmetal, more specifically, a reactive nonmetal, and has 7 valence electrons. The valence electrons of chlorine can be found by looking at its position – the group in which it lies – on the periodic table, or another method is to use its electron configuration.
Methods
Using periodic table
Get the periodic table having the chemical elements marked on it as mentioned above.
Now mark the location of chlorine on the periodic table.
Next, mark the group number of chlorine on the periodic table.
The valence electrons of each main-group element can be determined by the column in which it is located.
(i.e., all group 1 elements have 1 valence electron, all group 2 elements have 2 valence electrons, skip the transition metals… then, all group 13 elements have 3 valence electrons, all group 14 elements have 4 valence electrons, and so on up to group 18 elements)
Since chlorine is in group 17, it has 7 valence electrons.
Using electron configuration
- First, write electron configuration of chlorine
The electron configuration of chlorine is [Ne] 3s2 3p5.
- Second, find highest energy level in electron configuration
In the above electron configuration, the highest energy level (3) is marked with green color.
- Finally, count electrons of that energy level
The 3rd energy level contains 3s and 3p subshells. There are 2 electrons in the 3s subshell and 5 electrons in the 3p subshell. So chlorine has a total of 2 + 5 = 7 valence electrons.
Next: Argon valence electrons
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External links
- https://socratic.org/questions/how-many-valence-electrons-are-in-an-atom-of-chlorine
- https://www.sciencecoverage.com/2021/01/chlorine-valence-electrons.html
- https://www.quora.com/How-many-valence-electrons-are-there-in-chlorine
- https://homework.study.com/explanation/how-many-valence-electrons-does-a-neutral-atom-of-chlorine-have.html
- https://valenceelectrons.com/valence-electrons-of-chlorine/
Deep
Learnool.com was founded by Deep Rana, who is a mechanical engineer by profession and a blogger by passion. He has a good conceptual knowledge on different educational topics and he provides the same on this website. He loves to learn something new everyday and believes that the best utilization of free time is developing a new skill.