Write down the electronic configuration of: `Ce ^(4+)`

Explanation

To find the electronic configuration of the cerium ion \( \text{Ce}^{4+} \), we will follow these steps:

### Step 1: Determine the Atomic Number of Cerium
Cerium (Ce) has an atomic number of 58. This means that a neutral cerium atom has 58 electrons.

### Step 2: Write the Electronic Configuration of Neutral Cerium
The electronic configuration of neutral cerium can be written as:
\[ \text{Ce}: [\text{Xe}] 4f^1 5d^1 6s^2 \]
Here, \([\text{Xe}]\) represents the electron configuration of xenon, which accounts for the first 54 electrons.

### Step 3: Understand the Ionization Process
The \( \text{Ce}^{4+} \) ion indicates that cerium has lost 4 electrons. To find the electronic configuration of \( \text{Ce}^{4+} \), we need to remove 4 electrons from the neutral cerium configuration.

### Step 4: Remove Electrons from the Highest Energy Levels
When removing electrons, we generally remove them from the outermost shell first. In the case of cerium:
- The electrons in the \( 6s \) subshell are removed first (2 electrons).
- Next, we remove 1 electron from the \( 5d \) subshell (1 electron).
- Finally, we remove 1 electron from the \( 4f \) subshell (1 electron).

### Step 5: Write the Electronic Configuration of \( \text{Ce}^{4+} \)
After removing the 4 electrons, the remaining configuration is:
\[ \text{Ce}^{4+}: [\text{Xe}] 4f^0 5d^0 6s^0 \]
Since all the electrons in the \( 4f \), \( 5d \), and \( 6s \) subshells have been removed, we can simplify this to:
\[ \text{Ce}^{4+}: [\text{Xe}] \]

### Final Answer
The electronic configuration of \( \text{Ce}^{4+} \) is:
\[ \text{Ce}^{4+}: [\text{Xe}] \]