What Element Has 6 Valence Electrons
Access detailed info on all elements: atomic mass, electron configurations, charges, and more. View rotating Bohr models for all 118 elements. Get a free HD image of the Periodic Table.
Note: For future use, bookmark this Periodic table or visit PeriodicTableGuide.com Oxygen and Sulfur are the most well-known, playing major roles in biology and industry. While all Group 16 elements share six valence electrons, their physical properties vary widely.
Oxygen is a gas at room temperature, while Sulfur, Selenium, Tellurium, and radioactive Polonium are solids. Identify the group in the periodic table that contains elements with exactly 6 valence electrons. These elements belong to Group 16, also known as the chalcogens.
List the elements given in the problem and confirm that they all belong to Group 16: Oxygen (O), Sulfur (S), Selenium (Se), and Tellurium (Te). How many valence electrons are in one atom of each element? Solution. Sulfur (S) is located in Group VIA (Group 16), so it has 6 valence electrons.
Helium (He) is located in Group VIIIA (Group 18). However, one atom only has two electrons, so it could never have more than 2 valence electrons. The elements in Group 16 include oxygen (O), sulfur (S), selenium (Se), tellurium (Te), and polonium (Po).
These elements have six valence electrons because they are in Group 16, which corresponds to the number of electrons in the outermost energy level (valence shell). The electron configuration of oxygen shows that the last shell of oxygen has six electrons. Therefore, the valence electrons of oxygen are six.
The elements in Group 16 on the periodic table have six valence electrons. They include oxygen, sulfur, selenium, tellurium, and polonium. The element with 6 valence electrons and 4 electron shells is carbon (C).
Carbon (C) indeed possesses 6 valence electrons and 4 electron shells, making it an essential element in the periodic table. Its atomic number is 6, signifying the presence of 6 protons and 6 electrons. This table of element valences includes the maximum valence and most common valence values in chemistry.
Use this for reference with a periodic table. For a main-group element, a valence electron can exist only in the outermost electron shell; for a transition metal, a valence electron can also be in an inner shell. An atom with a closed shell of valence electrons (corresponding to a noble gas configuration) tends to be chemically inert.