page_title: Aufbau principle
hierarchical_section_title: Aufbau principle
caption_attribution_description: English: Adding electrons showing the aufbau principle.
context_page_description: The aufbau principle, from the German Aufbauprinzip, also called the aufbau rule, states that in the ground state of an atom or ion, electrons fill atomic orbitals of the lowest available energy levels before occupying higher levels. For example, the 1s subshell is filled before the 2s subshell is occupied. In this way, the electrons of an atom or ion form the most stable electron configuration possible. An example is the configuration 1s² 2s² 2p⁶ 3s² 3p³ for the phosphorus atom, meaning that the 1s subshell has 2 electrons, and so on.
  Electron behavior is elaborated by other principles of atomic physics, such as Hund's rule and the Pauli exclusion principle. Hund's rule asserts that if multiple orbitals of the same energy are available, electrons will occupy different orbitals singly before any are occupied doubly. If double occupation does occur, the Pauli exclusion principle requires that electrons which occupy the same orbital must have different spins.
  As we pass from one element to another of next higher atomic number, one proton and one electron are added each time to the neutral atom.
context_section_description: The aufbau principle, from the German Aufbauprinzip (building-up principle), also called the aufbau rule, states that in the ground state of an atom or ion, electrons fill atomic orbitals of the lowest available energy levels before occupying higher levels. For example, the 1s subshell is filled before the 2s subshell is occupied. In this way, the electrons of an atom or ion form the most stable electron configuration possible. An example is the configuration 1s² 2s² 2p⁶ 3s² 3p³ for the phosphorus atom, meaning that the 1s subshell has 2 electrons, and so on.
  Electron behavior is elaborated by other principles of atomic physics, such as Hund's rule and the Pauli exclusion principle. Hund's rule asserts that if multiple orbitals of the same energy are available, electrons will occupy different orbitals singly before any are occupied doubly. If double occupation does occur, the Pauli exclusion principle requires that electrons which occupy the same orbital must have different spins (+1/2 and −1/2).
  As we pass from one element to another of next higher atomic number, one proton and one electron are added each time to the neutral atom.
  The maximum number of electrons in any shell is 2n², where n is the principal quantum number.
  The maximum number of electrons in a subshell (s, p, d or f) is equal to 2(2ℓ+1) where ℓ = 0, 1, 2, 3...
  Thus these subshells can have a maximum of 2, 6, 10 and 14 electrons respectively.
  In the ground state the electronic configuration can be built up by placing electrons in the lowest available orbitals until the total number of electrons added is equal to the atomic number. Thus orbitals are filled in the order of increasing energy, using two general rules to help predict electronic configurations:
  1. Electrons are assigned to orbitals in order of increasing value of (n+ℓ).
  2. For subshells with the same value of (n+ℓ), electrons are assigned first to the sub shell with lower n.
  A version of the aufbau principle known as the nuclear shell model is used to predict the configuration of protons and neutrons in an atomic nucleus.
caption: Electrons occupy the shells and sub-shells of an atom in approximate accordance with the aufbau principle.
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