4.2
NAMING IONS AND PREDIC
TING THEIR CHARGE
Anions
:^ Filled sublevels are more stable than partially filled sublevels, so atoms react
with one another to reduce the number of partia
lly filled sublevels. Nonmetals tend to gain
electrons, so they add electrons to fill their valence shell, which requires 8 electrons (ns
2
np
6 ) for a nonmetal. The number of valence electrons in a nonmetal atom equals its group
number, so the number of electrons require
d to fill the valence shell is (8 - Group
Number). Each added electron carries a charge of
-1, so the charge on an anion equals the
number of electrons added times -1. The resulting anion is named by replacing the ending of the atom’s name with -
ide
. Oxygen is a Group 6A nonmetal and therefore gains (8 - 6)
= 2 electrons to acquire a -2 charge, so the ox
ide
ion is O
2-. Nitrogen, a Group 5A
nonmetal, gains three electrons to form the nitr
ide
ion, N
3-. Monatomic anions
- are
isoelectronic
† with the next noble gas, so their electron configurations are all [noble gas].
* Monatomic ions are ions that consist of only one atom. For example,
2-O
is a monatomic ion but O
2- and NO 2
1- are polyatomic ions. 3
Example 4.2
What is the charge on the anions formed by the halogens? What is the name of the ion formed from Cl, and what
is its electron configuration?
The halogens are the elements in Group 7A, so they gain (8 - 7) = 1 electron to form -1 ions. Cl
1- is the chloride ion. It is isoelectronic wi
th argon, so its configuration is [Ar].
Cations
: Metals tend to lose electrons, so they eliminate partially filled sublevels by
emptying them to produce cations. The charge
on a cation equals the number of electrons
lost, and the name of the cation is the same as the name of the atom. There are two rules that determine which electrons are lost.
- The valence electrons with the highest
n quantum number are lost first.
- When the valence electrons are in more than one sublevel within the same level, the
electrons in the highest
l sublevel are lost first.
The first rule means that the transition meta
ls lose the outermost s electrons before
they lose any d electrons
, so the order in which the electrons are removed is not simply the
reverse of the filling order. This is due to the f
act that the energies of the 4s and 3d orbitals
in an atom are very similar, and the chang
es in the environment of the valence electrons
that result when a metal atom becomes an ion
are sufficient to reverse the order of their
energy. Thus,
most
transition elements readily form a +2 ion by losing their
ns
2 electrons.
The second rule applies to the heavy elements
in the p block that lose the np electrons
before the ns electrons. Tl, 6s
2 6p
1 , forms a +1 ion by losing its 6p electron first and a +3
† Isoelectronic means having the same electron configuration. Two
species with the same number of electrons are isoelectronic.
Chapter 4 The Ionic Bond
© by
North
Carolina
State
University