Question

Anomalous behavior of oxygen, compared to other VI A group elements is due to:
(A) Its high electronegativity
(B) Its small atomic size
(C) Non availability of d-orbital
(D) All

Answer 1

Hint: We know that oxygen is a p-block 16^th group and 2^nd period element. It has some properties different from other elements of its group.

Step by step solution:
There are some properties which are different from oxygen of other 16^th group elements:
* In most compounds, oxygen shows -2 oxidation state. It also shows -1 in some compounds. It can’t exhibit higher oxidation state due to absence of d-orbitals. The other 16^th group elements show -2, +2, +4 and +6 oxidation state.
* Water is(which is hydride of oxygen) liquid at room temperature whereas hydrides of other 16^th group elements are gases, because there is hydrogen bonding in water molecules and there no such types of bonding in hydrides of 16^th group elements.
* Molecular oxygen is paramagnetic while other members of the 16^th group are diamagnetic.
* Oxygen has the lowest atomic number and lowest size then other elements of the 16^th group. Oxygen is more electronegative than other elements of the 16^th group.
So, from the above explanation we can say that all the given options are correct. Then the answer is option “D”.

Note: The anomalous behavior of every first element in a group is due to the non availability of d-orbital in their valence shell, small size, high electronegativity.