 Okay, let's look at another interesting section of inorganic chemistry, the p-block elements. Now as the name correctly suggests, we are looking at the elements that belong to the p-block, right? Like boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, aluminum, silicon, basically everything that is written in this particular box. Alright, let us now briefly look at some unique properties and characteristics of the p-block elements. Now one of the first things that you will notice about the p-block is that it extends all the way from group 13 to group 18. That means there are a total of 6 groups. But why is it 6 groups? Why do we not have like 4 or let's say 2 groups? This is because the last electron of each of these elements enters into the, you guessed it right, the p orbital. And how many p orbitals are there? There are 3 p orbitals and as we know that every orbital can accommodate a maximum of only 2 electrons which means p orbital in total can accommodate a maximum of only 6 electrons. And this is why we have 6 groups of elements. But let's try to understand this in a bit more detail. Let's take the first element of the p-block which is boron. We know that boron has 5 electrons. That means its electronic configuration would be 1s2, 2s2 and 2p1. So as you can see you have 1 electron in the p orbital. And if you look at the next element which is carbon it has 6 electrons. I meant the element in the next group. So 6 electrons would mean we have 1s2, 2s2 and 2 electrons in the p orbital, right? Similarly, if you look at the other elements in the p-block you will notice that the electrons enter successively into the p orbitals until group 18 where the entire p orbitals get fully occupied. So by looking at this we can easily see that the general outer electronic configuration of p-block elements can be written as ns2, np1 to 6, right? Where if you have 1 electron in the p orbital it would be in group 13. If you have 2 electron in the p orbital it would be group 14. If you have 3 electrons it would be group 15 and so on. And if you have completely filled p orbital you are looking at group 18. But wait a minute what about helium? We know that helium has only 2 electrons that means its electronic configuration is 1s2. Wow this is interesting because helium has no electrons in the p orbital. Then why are we placing it in the p-block and not in the s-block? Now this is because as we all know periodic table was initially formulated on the basis of similarities in the properties of elements. And it was observed that even though helium has only 2 electrons its properties were very similar to the rest of the noble gases. And this is why despite having 2s electrons we place helium in the p-block along with the rest of the group 18 elements. Now before I wrap up this video there is one more thing that I really want to tell you guys. So for that let us go to the p-block alone here. Now one of the things that I found very interesting at least as I was learning as a student that a p-block is that p-block is the only block which has non-metals and metalloids present in it. Yes not in the s-block not in the d-block or the f-block but in the p-block. And even more interesting thing is that this non-metallic nature is not even consistent. What do you mean by that? I mean if you look at a group you will see that the lighter elements are non-metallic in nature but as you go down the group the heavier elements tend to become predominantly metallic. For instance boron here is a non-metal. But can you say the same thing about thallium which is present in the same group? Nope thallium is purely metallic in nature. And as you go to the other group so the subsequent groups you will find that this non-metallic nature transitions through the metalloid character. For instance carbon as you can see here is a non-metal. Silicon and germanium are metalloids and tin and lead are metallic in nature. Now this transitioning from non-metallic to metalloid to metallic nature has a lot of significance. It brings about a certain diversity and nuances to the chemistry of p-block elements. So let's explore more about them in the upcoming videos.