Photoelectron Spectroscopy (PES) – AP Chemistry

Learning Objectives

Extract the full Electron Configuration from a PES graph.

Understand why Binding Energy (X-axis) decreases from Left to Right.

Apply Coulomb's Law: Higher Effective Nuclear Charge (\(Z_{eff}\)) increases Binding Energy for core electrons.

Key Rules

Peak Height:

Directly proportional to the number of electrons in the subshell.

Peak Position:

Inner shells (1s) require massive energy to eject (far left). Valence shells are loose (far right).

Subshell Limits

s-orbital: 2e⁻
p-orbital: 6e⁻
d-orbital: 10e⁻
f-orbital: 14e⁻