Write the charge and full ground-state electron configuration of the monatomic ion most likely to be formed by P.

Question

Charge: -3

And I got 1s²2s²2p⁶3s²3p³ for the ground-state electron configuration, but it is incorrect. What does ground state configuration mean?

Answer 1

If the charge is -3, the ground state of the P^3- ion should be 1s²2s²2p⁶3s²3p6 to account for the added 3 electrons.

Ground state means all the electrons are in lowest energy levels.