# How many empty orbitals?

I know there's 1s, 2s, 2p, 3s, 3p, 4s, 3d, etc. From my understanding, each of those is an orbital. So for example, carbon has 3 orbitals (1s-2, 2s-2, 3p-2). Is that right?

If it is, now I have a question about EMPTY orbitals- I don't understand this at all. For example, take carbon. Well carbon has 6 electrons and it would be: 1s-2, 2s-2, 2p-2. The p ones have 3 suborbitals, so carbon has one empty SUB-orbital?? But how does any element have an empty orbital? Isn't their outermost orbital the one that has at least one valence electron in it (i.e it's not empty)?

• zillions of empty orbitals. Look at the spectral series for hydrogen. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_spectral_series – MaxW Sep 28 '16 at 1:22
• So the orbital is not empty, but one of its suborbitals is empty. What is your question? – DHMO Sep 28 '16 at 9:45
• I don't think this question deserves the downvotes. The person simply had an issue of nomenclature [suborbitals is the incorrect term (or atleast quite uncommon) while orbitals is the correct term for what he had in mind]. – FreezingFire Sep 28 '16 at 19:18

The orbitals are: $$\large 1s,\; 2s,\; 2p_x,\; 2p_y,\; 2p_z,\; 3s,\; 3p_x,\; 3p_y,\; 3p_z,\; 3d_{xy},\; 3d_{yz},\; 3d_{zx},\; 3d_{x^2-y^2},\; 3d_{z^2}\; ...$$ In your example, the electronic configuration of carbon is: $$\ce{_6^{12}C}=1s^2 \; 2s^2 \; 2p_x^1 \; 2p_y^1 \; 2p_z^0$$ My point is, the classification is like this: there are four (commonly occuring) types of orbitals, the s-orbitals, the p-orbitals, the d-orbitals and the f-orbitals. The first shell consists of only the $1s$ orbital. The second shell consists of the $2s$ orbital and the three $2p$ orbitals: $2p_x, 2p_y, 2p_z$. Similarly $3d$ is just the blanket name for the five different $3d$ orbitals as mentioned above.
Thus in carbon, the $2p_z$ orbital is empty, and the $2p_x$ and $2p_y$ orbitals are half filled (holding one electron). Actually, you could equivalently left the $2p_x$ or $2p_y$ orbital empty, it doesn't matter.
You may be confused with the naming system of the separate orbitals ("what is this $2p_x$ and $3d_{xy}$ and $3d_{x^2-y^2}$ this guy is talking about?"). Well, they are just names given to the separate $p$ and $d$ orbitals, based on their mathematical nature. (See atomic orbitals on Wikipedia).