Question

How many orbitals does d-subshell have ?

• A. $4$
• B. $5$
• C. $3$
• D. $6$

Answer 1

Answer: (B)

In chemistry and atomic physics, an electron shell, or a principal energy level, may be thought of as an orbit followed by electrons around an atom's nucleus. Each shell can contain only a fixed number of electrons: The first shell can hold up to two electrons, the second shell can hold up to eight (2 + 6) electrons, the third shell can hold up to 18 (2 + 6 + 10) and so on. Each shell consists of one or more subshells, and each subshell consists of one or more atomic orbitals.

Each subshell is constrained to hold 4ℓ + 2 electrons at most, namely:

1. Each s subshell holds at most 2 electrons(1 orbital)
   
2. Each p subshell holds at most 6 electrons(3orbitals)
3. Each d subshell holds at most 10 electrons(5 orbitals)
4. Each f subshell holds at most 14 electrons(7 orbitals)
5. Each g subshell holds at most 18 electrons(9 orbitals)