Question

How many electrons can a d orbital have?

Answer 1

`2`..., unless you are looking for something else.

Explanation:

Any orbital can hold a maximum of `2` electrons, wherever it is located. The `d` subshell however, contains `5` orbitals, and so the subshell can hold a total of `2*5=10` electrons.

Answer 2

A d subshell can hold 10 electrons total, but each orbital only holds 2.

Explanation:

The d subshell actually contains five orbitals, each holding 2 electrons.

Thus, the total electrons the d subshell can hold is `2*5=10`