Question

How do you find electron configurations for ions?

Answer 1

Hint The answer is dependent on the basic concept of chemistry which tells about the facts of atoms and its atomic number where the number of electrons is written accordingly in which shell they are accommodated.

Complete step – by – step answer:
The basic concept of chemistry deals with the sections of atoms, its structure and properties and also the related electronic configuration of atoms and several related definitions.
We shall recall those concepts so that we will be able to solve the given question.
- Atoms are composed mainly of a central nucleus in which the protons and neutrons are concentrated in it. Protons are the positively charged species and neutrons are the neutral species.
- Around this nucleus, the electrons that are the negatively charged species revolve in a circular orbit where the number of protons is always equal to the number of electrons.
- These electrons present in the atom can be written in the configuration form according to which the electrons are present in different shells.
For instance, if we consider the carbon atom with atomic number 6, the number of electrons present is 6 and the configuration can be written as, $ 1{{s}^{2}}2{{s}^{2}}2{{p}^{4}}$
In this way, the filling of electrons takes place according to the Aufbau principle.
In case of ions such as chloride ion, a comparison between the chlorine atom and chloride ion can be made which is given below,
- Chlorine with atomic number 17 has 17 electrons and the configuration will be $ 1{{s}^{2}}2{{s}^{2}}2{{p}^{6}}3{{s}^{2}}3{{p}^{5}}$
- Chloride ion $ C{{l}^{-}}$ has extra electrons where the total electrons will be 18 and thus the configuration changes to $ 1{{s}^{2}}2{{s}^{2}}2{{p}^{6}}3{{s}^{2}}3{{p}^{6}}$

Note: Note that the ions may be positive or negative but the electronic configuration will change accordingly. If the ion is negative there will be addition of electrons and if the ion is positive then the electron will be removed from the actual configuration.