Answer: A. 14 electrons, which include 4 valence electrons in the third energy level and 10 electrons distributed over the first two energy levels.
Explanation:
Silicon is an element with atomic number 14 and thus contain 14 electrons. It is a p block element as the last electron enters the p orbital. The nearest noble gas is neon with 10 electrons.
The electrons are filled according to Afbau's rule in order of increasing energies and thus the electronic configuration in terms of noble gs configuration is:
[tex]Si:14:1s^22s^22p^63s^23p^2[/tex]
The valence electrons are the electrons present in last shell i.e n= 3, thus there are 4 valence electrons, 8 electrons in n= 2 and 2 electrons in n= 1 energy level. Thus total of 10 electrons in first two energy levels.
