Answer:
The 5s subshell is partially filled in the ground-state rhodium atom
Explanation:
The filling up of electrons in the atom of an element follows the Aufbau principle.
Aufbau principle states that electrons fill electron shells around atoms according to the energy level with those of lower energy levels filled first. This means that electron shells and subshells around atoms start filling up with electrons first since their energy levels progressively increases, except in some cases where an outer shell has a low energy level and partly fills up before an inner shell is full.
These exceptions are based on the fact that half-full or full shells or subshells are more stable than partially filled ones. When there is small or negligible difference in energy levels between two subshells, an electron may move to the higher level shell to fill or half-fill it thereby conferring stability to the atom. These exceptions are common in elements with higher atomic number as the differences in energy levels become smaller. An example is the rhodium atom.
Rhodium atoms have 45 electrons and the shell structure is 2,8,18,16,1. The ground state electron configuration of ground state gaseous neutral rhodium atom is [Kr],4d85s1. The inner 4d and the outermost 5s subshells are partially filled.
