Question #7eca9

1 Answer
Nov 22, 2017

You may work it out from the "size" of each atom's nucleus and the electrons around it, or look it up in a table.
N^(3-) > O^(2-) > F^-, > Na^+, > Mg^(2+) > Ne.

Explanation:

We know that the atoms generally decrease in size as they move left-to-right in a row of the Periodic Table of the Elements, and increase as they move down in a column, or Group. There is a sharp reversal going from the last element in a row to the first one of the next row.

Once the initial atomic sized are determined, we can observe that adding electrons (- charges) will increase the effective size, and removing them (+ charges) will decrease the effective size.
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Given:
N^(3-) Mg^(2+) Na^+, F^-, O^(2-) Ne.

"Normal" sequence (decreasing):
First Row: Ne, N, O, F
Second Row: Na, Mg

Ionic changes in each row:
Ne .("no change"), N -> N^(3-) "larger", O -> O^(2-) "larger", F -> F^- ,"larger"
Na -> Na^+ "smaller",Mg -> Mg^(2+) "smaller", .

So, relatively, N^(3-) should be larger than O^(2-), which will still be larger than F^- , Na^(+1) remains larger than Mg^(2+) and Ne is unchanged as the smallest.

Considering the effect of charge balance, more electrons relative to protons (-) expand the radius, and fewer electrons (+) decrease the effective radius.

Thus, "isoelectronic" atoms can be compared:
N -> N^(3-) "expands" just a bit more than O^(2-)
O -> O^(2-) "expands" just a bit more than F^- ,
F -> F^- , slight expansion.

Na -> Na^+ "contracts" just a bit
Mg -> Mg^(2+) "contracts" a bit more than Na^+

Thus, the final order of the relative size of the ions listed is:
N^(3-) > O^(2-) > F^-, > Na^+ > Mg^(2+) > Ne.

Actual values (picometer):
N^(3-) = 150
O^(2-) = 140
F^-, = 133
Na^+ = 102
Mg^(2+) = 70
Ne = 62
http://abulafia.mt.ic.ac.uk/shannon/ptable.php

https://www.webelements.com/periodicity/ionic_radius/

http://chemguide.co.uk/atoms/properties/atradius.html