The use of rich and suter diagrams to explain the electron configurations of transition elements

Abstract

Rich and Suter diagrams are a very useful tool to explain the electron configurations of all transition elements, and in particular, the s1 and s0 configurations of the elements Cr, Cu, Nb, Mo, Ru, Rh, Pd, Ag, and Pt. The application of these diagrams to the inner transition elements also explains the electron configurations of lanthanoids and actinoids, except for Ce, Pa, U, Np, and Cm, whose electron configurations are indeed very special because they are a mixture of several configurations.