valence electron

An electron in an outer shell of an atom that can participate in forming chemical bonds with other atoms.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

va′lence elec`tron

an electron of an atom, located in the outermost shell (va′lence shell`) of the atom, that can be transferred to or shared with another atom.

[1925–30]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

valence electron - an electron in the outer shell of an atom which can combine with other atoms to form molecules

electron, negatron - an elementary particle with negative charge

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

Initial quantum phase and density distribution of a valence electron wavepacket.

Making Optical Waves, Tracing Electrons in Real-Time: The Onset of the Attosecond Realm

From this description the formal number of valence electrons can be derived to be used in further calculations of each of the ions.

Opto-electronic properties of ternary chalcopyrite [A.sup.I][B.sup.III][C.sub.2.sup.VI] and [A.sup.II][B.sup.IV][C.sub.2.sup.V] semiconductors

They have the same number of valence electrons, the same atomic structure and have nearly identical atomic size.

Gold prospects: gold can be found anywhere by anyone

Migdalek and Baylis [9] proposed to introduce a cutoff function directly into the expression for the effective field [E.sub.v] produced by a valence electron at the core, and subsequently obtained the following expressions for [V.sub.p] and [d.sub.eff]:

Electron-impact cross sections for ground state to np excitations of sodium and potassium

Total number of valence electrons is denoted by Z, density is denoted by and M denotes the molecular weight of the CaBL single crystal.

Determination of Basic Solid State Parameters and Characterization of Optical, Dielectric and Fluorescence Properties of Calcium Boro Lactate(CaBL)

The low energy band associated with the diagram emission band involves transitions from valence electrons, some of them originating from oxygen states.

Decomposition of wavelength dispersive X-Ray spectra

Valence electrons, which are located in outer orbits, participate in chemical bonds.

Single-atom current heeds orbital count

The number of valence electrons of the dopant element determines the number of states and its position within the gap when the O atom is replaced.

C-, N-, S-, and F-Doped Anatase Ti[O.sub.2] (101) with Oxygen Vacancies: Photocatalysts Active in the Visible Region