How many valence electrons does sodium have?

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    Sodium like all the group 1 alkali metals has one valence electron.
    are the outermost electrons and are the ones involved in . Sodium has 11 electrons: its is 11 so it has 11 protons; atoms are neutral so this means sodium also has 11 electrons.
    Electrons are arranged in shells or energy levels. Depending on your level of Chemistry it is probably easier to think of them as particles orbiting the nucleus. The first shell can have 2 electrons. The second shell can have up to 8 electrons. The third shell is a bit more complicated but let’s just say that it takes up to 8 electrons as well (for now…).
    So sodium’s 11 electrons are arranged this way: 2 electrons in the first shell 8 electrons in the second shell; and 1 electron (the valence electron) in the third shell. We write this as 2.8.1. The last number is how we know the number of .
    Aluminium has the electron arrangement 2.8.3. It has 3 valence electrons. Fluorine has the electron arrangement 2.7. It has 7 valence electrons. This trend only gets broken at Sc (21).
    Here is a video which gives further explanation of this topic.

    video from: Noel Pauller

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