What is the electron configuration of chromium?

Understand the Problem

The question is asking for the electron configuration of the element chromium, which is a fundamental concept in chemistry related to how electrons are arranged around an atom's nucleus.

More Information

Chromium has an anomalous configuration because the half-filled d-subshell (3d5) and filled s-subshell (4s1) provide extra stability compared to the expected configuration.

Tips

A common mistake is to write the electron configuration as [Ar] 3d4 4s2, which does not account for the stability provided by the half-filled d-subshell.

Sources

• Electron Configurations - Chemistry LibreTexts - chem.libretexts.org
• General Chemistry - Purdue University - chem.purdue.edu