What is the electron configuration for Oxygen?

The electron configuration for oxygen is represented as [He] 2s² 2p⁴. This configuration reflects the arrangement of electrons in the atom's orbitals.

Oxygen has an atomic number of 8, indicating that it has 8 electrons. When we distribute these electrons among the available energy levels, we start with the first energy level, which can hold a maximum of 2 electrons. The 1s orbital is fully filled with 2 electrons, and this corresponds to the configuration [He], which stands for the filled inner shell of helium.

Moving to the second energy level, we can fill the orbitals according to the Aufbau principle. The 2s orbital can hold 2 electrons, and this is represented as 2s². Following that, we place the remaining 4 electrons in the 2p orbital. The 2p subshell can hold a total of 6 electrons, so with 4 in this case, written as 2p⁴, we see that it is correctly filled.

Thus, this configuration accurately represents the distribution of all 8 electrons in the oxygen atom, confirming that [He] 2s² 2p⁴ is the correct electron configuration.