Final answer:
At ground state, atoms of both aluminium and sulfur contain three electron layers, while lithium only has two, and scandium has more than three.
Step-by-step explanation:
To determine which element(s) have atoms with three electron layers in the ground state, we look at the electron configurations of elements. The alkali metal lithium (Li), with an atomic number of 3, has two electrons in the first shell and one electron in the second shell, implying it does not have three electron layers.
Moving forward in the periodic table, elements with more than ten electrons start to require additional electron shells. For example, sulfur (S), with an atomic number of 16, fills the first two shells and continues to fill the third shell. This is also true for aluminium (Al) with 13 electrons, and both of these elements have atoms with three electron layers at ground state.
In contrast, the transition metal scandium (Sc) starts filling the 3d subshell after the third shell is inhabited, indicating that its electron layers extend beyond three. This means that scandium does not have exactly three electron layers in its ground state.