Thread: question about valence shell of s block elements and this wikipedia table

Looking at this wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valenc...#Valence_shell

It shows this table

https://i.imgur.com/CKj637A.png



Which says that Hydrogen and Helium have valence shell of 1s (Fine)

Then it says "s and p blocks", and says the valence shell is ns np. I can see that the p block has "ns np" as the valence shell. But I don't see why the "s block" would have "ns np" valence shell.

I'm wondering what you guys think about that re the s block.

I was thinking maybe it was considering atoms in an excited electronic configuration state, but if that's the case then it could go beyond np, and it should do that for other blocks too eg the d block could go up to f if excited states were to be taken into account.

So i'm wondering if it should be more like

https://i.imgur.com/4fdPJ2w.png



So s and p blocks split up. And showing s block with just s. And p block with s and p.

duplicate

So s and p blocks split up. And showing s block with just s. And p block with s and p.

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What about the covalent chemistry of Be, though? That can't be accounted for purely in terms of s-orbitals. Even to form 2 bonds, one electron must be promoted to a p orbital, giving sp hybridisation. (You also get this a bit with Mg, e.g. in Grignard reagents) And with Be, it often forms structures involving tetrahedral bonding, so that implies sp3 hybridisation, though the extra electrons have to be donated from whatever it is bound to.

So I think you do have to include p orbitals in the valence shell of Gp II elements, even though I agree that for the ionic compounds formed by most s-block elements they don't play a role.

fantastic, thanks