Absolute chemical hardness easily explains the “anomalous” electron configurations of Cr and Cu

Abstract

In this article, it is shown that absolute chemical hardness can be employed to easily show/explain/prove that d⁵ and d¹⁰ electron configurations are indeed more stable than all (from d¹ to d¹⁰) configurations. Hence, absolute hardness can be employed to explain the apparently “anomalous” and “baffling” Cr and Cu electron configurations that are sometimes “tricky” for many high school and undergraduate basic chemistry students.