General electronic configuration of lanthanides is

Options

A. `(n - 2) f^(1- 14) (n-1) d^(0-1) ns^(2)`
B. `(n - 2) f^(10- 14) (n-1) d^(0-1) ns^(2)`
C. `(n - 2) f^(0- 14) (n-1) d^(10) ns^(2)`
D. `(n - 2) f^(0- 1) (n-1) f^(1-14) ns^(2)`

Answer

To determine the general electronic configuration of lanthanides, we can follow these steps:

### Step-by-Step Solution:

1. **Identify the Range of Lanthanides**:
- Lanthanides are the elements with atomic numbers from 58 (Cerium) to 71 (Lutetium). This gives us a total of 14 elements.

2. **Determine the Period and Group**:
- Lanthanides are located in the sixth period of the periodic table. They are also part of the f-block elements.

3. **Understand the Electron Filling Order**:
- In lanthanides, the electrons fill the 4f subshell before the 5d subshell. This is due to the Aufbau principle, where electrons occupy the lowest energy orbitals first.

4. **General Electronic Configuration**:
- The general electronic configuration for lanthanides can be expressed as:
- \( [Xe] 6s^2 4f^{1-14} \)
- Here, \( [Xe] \) represents the electron configuration of Xenon, which accounts for the filled inner shells.

5. **Include the Penultimate and Pre-Penultimate Shells**:
- In addition to the 4f subshell, we must also consider the filled 5s and 5p subshells:
- The complete configuration can be represented as:
- \( [Xe] 6s^2 4f^{1-14} 5d^{0-1} \)
- This indicates that the 5d subshell can have up to 1 electron.

6. **Final General Electronic Configuration**:
- Therefore, the general electronic configuration of lanthanides can be summarized as:
- \( n-2 f^{1-14} n-1 s^2 n-1 p^6 n-1 d^{0-1} \)
- For lanthanides, this translates to:
- \( 4f^{1-14} 5d^{0-1} 6s^2 6p^6 \)

### Conclusion:
The correct general electronic configuration for lanthanides is:
- **Option 1**: \( n-2 f^{1-14}, n-1 d^{0-1}, n-1 s^2, n-1 p^6 \)