The Aufbau Principle in The Old Quantum Theory
The principle takes its name from the German, Aufbauprinzip, "building-up principle", rather than being named for a scientist. In fact, it was formulated by Niels Bohr and Wolfgang Pauli in the early 1920s, and states that:
| “ | The orbitals of lower energy are filled in first with the electrons and only then the orbitals of high energy are filled. | ” |
This was an early application of quantum mechanics to the properties of electrons, and explained chemical properties in physical terms. Each added electron is subject to the electric field created by the positive charge of the atomic nucleus and the negative charge of other electrons that are bound to the nucleus. Although in hydrogen there is no energy difference between orbitals with the same principal quantum number n, this is not true for the outer electrons of other atoms.
In the old quantum theory prior to quantum mechanics, electrons were supposed to occupy classical elliptical orbits. The orbits with the highest angular momentum are 'circular orbits' outside the inner electrons, but orbits with low angular momentum (s- and p-orbitals) have high orbital eccentricity, so that they get closer to the nucleus and feel on average a less strongly screened nuclear charge.
Read more about this topic: Aufbau Principle, History
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