Question #27e4d

1 Answer
Jun 10, 2016

This is actually hard to do completely without actual data.


INITIAL GUESS

My initial ordering would be based on charge (smallest to largest):

  1. Al3+
  2. Mg2+
  3. Na+
  4. Ne
  5. F
  6. O2
  7. O3

since a larger positive charge gives a larger effective nuclear charge relative to an element on the same period with a smaller positive charge, and thus a smaller ionic radius.

But we are looking way across the periodic table, and the period trend and group trend overlap.

PERIOD/GROUP TREND CONFLICTS

Recall that the atomic radius resets to be bigger due to the addition of a new quantum level n, so Ne is smaller than Na0. However, that doesn't tell us everything we need to know.

How much smaller does Mg get upon two ionizations, and Na get after one ionization? That's what I don't know. We can still say that rNa+>rMg2+, but...

The actual radii are:

  • 53 pm (ionic radius)
  • 72 pm (ionic radius)
  • 102 pm (ionic radius)
  • 69 pm (covalent radius)
  • 133 pm (ionic radius)
  • 140 pm (ionic radius)
  • >140 pm (ionic radius)

respectively, for the species listed at the top.

So I would have misplaced Ne. Apparently, Mg2+ is very slightly larger than Ne, by virtue of its added quantum level.

(And I could also be wrong if the atomic radii I referenced were poorly calculated or poorly determined as well, because 3 pm is not a large margin of error.)

The "real" order, at least based on the data I referenced, would be (from smallest to largest):

  1. Al3+, rionic=53 pm
  2. Ne, rcovalent=69 pm
  3. Mg2+, rionic=72 pm
  4. Na+, rionic=102 pm
  5. F, rionic=133 pm
  6. O2, rionic=140 pm
  7. O3, rionic>140 pm