Question

How many valence electrons does iron have?

Answer 1

Hint To find the number of valence electrons in iron atom , you should first know that how many electrons are present in iron and then, calculate the total number of electrons present in the s, p and d-orbitals to get the valence electrons. Now you can easily answer the statement.

Complete answer:
-Iron is a metal which comes under the category of the transition elements and belongs to the d-block elements of the periodic table.
-It lies in the 8th group and 4nd period of the periodic table.
-It has the atomic number as 26 and the mass number as 56 and has the electronic configuration as: ${[Ar]}^{18}3d^{6}4s^2$.
Now considering the statement as:
-The number of electrons present in an atom is always equal to the atomic number of that very element.
-The electrons which are present in the outermost valence shell of an atom are called the valence electrons of the atom.
-From the electronic configuration of the iron atom, we come to know that the number of electrons present in the outermost shell i.e., 3 d orbital and 4 s orbital are 8 electrons.

Thus, the total number of valence electrons present in iron is eight.

Note: Iron being a transition metal has eight electrons in its outermost shell and has a strong tendency to lose the electrons in 4s orbitals and one electron from d-orbital to acquire the stable half -filled electronic configuration.