Talk:General Chemistry/Octet Rule and Exceptions

My question is in regards to the "octet rule". I understand the part about taking and giving electrons in order to satisfy the 8 required electrons on the outer shell. My question is, will the inner shell always contain 2 electrons?
 * Each orbital completes in turn. So you will not start having electrons in the p1 orbital until the s orbital is complete with two electrons. Hydrogen is the only atom with 1 electron in its inner shell, and it will form molecules to complete its s shell quite vigorously. So yes, the inmost shell will, in every molecule, contain 2 electrons. Chazz (talk) 21:50, 16 May 2011 (UTC)

What level is this article aimed at?
Clearly a relatively hgih level since it talks about s and p orbitals. However, statements such as "Hydrogen and helium have only one electron shell" are somewhat jejune -- it's only correct in the sense that hydrogen and helium commonly only fill the 1s shell. It's perfectly possible that an electron will sit in a 2s, 2p, 3d, 20g.... level in a hydrogen atom; these are just high energy states. Atoms simply do not possess shells in the sense suggested.

The article has a rather nebulous sense of stability. The Na7-/Cl7+ vs Na+ and Cl- in particular. There's no inherent stabilisation energy associated with an atom obtaining a full shell (or subshell), only that certain processes occur spontaneously giving out energy (ΔG<0). In the example one should compare the electron affinities and ionisation energies of Na and Cl.

The octet rule is clearly a useful rule of thumb but not an explanation.