Valence Electrons?

Question

How do u know what most likely an element will lose or gain electrons. for example....carbon has 4 valence electrons when it is neutral, to become stable it needs eight on the outer or two, it can either gain for two have to full sets of energy levels, or drop the four and hav one energy level consisting of two. how do u know if it loses or gains?

Answer 1

Hey,

The simple answer is that you act like an "atomic psychiatrist" and see if the atom sees its valence shell as "half empty" or "half full." Half empty and half full in this case mean whether the atom's valence shell is almost empty or almost full. Those whose valence shells are almost empty (columns 1 and 2 - the alkali metals and alkali earth metals) are eager to get rid of their valence electrons to assume the electron configuration of the noble gas with the next smallest number from them. Those that are almost full (the halogens) are eager to gain one more electron to complete their valence shell and assume the configuration of the noble gas with the next highest number from them.

From this, it follows that atoms who look at their existence from a "half empty" are eager to be cations (positively charged species) while those are "half full" like to be anions (negatively charged species).

Now let's call these phenomena by their chemical terms. Namely, electronegativity and ionization energy. If you look at these two values for any given atom, even if it's not at either end of the periodic table, you will understand how it will behave chemically.

Ionization energy is the energy required to remove an electron from an atom's valence shell, making the atom a positively-charged species, or a cation. The half-empty guys will have low ionization energies because they want to give their valence electrons away. However, the half-full guys will fight and kick and scream because they REALLY don't want to lose an electron - that will take them farther away from their goal of a full valence shell. They will have really high ionization energies.

Electronegativity is how much energy will be released when an atom accepts an electron. Energy will ALWAYS be released when this happens, but when a really greedy, half-full atom like fluorine takes this electron and assumes a full valence configuration, it will become a lot more stable, and a LOT of energy will be released (the lower the energy of an atom or compound, the more stable it is).

So, to sum up, atoms that will lose electrons easily have LOW ionization energies and LOW electronegativies. Atoms that want to gain electrons will have HIGH ionization energies and HIGH electronegativities.

Hope this helps =). Let me know if you need a more detailed explanation, especially with the transition metals, since that requires some more terminology.

Answer 2

First, you should know the difference between for and four and two and to. How do you expect to express yourself in science, which demands legible English? Carbon is in the "middle" of the chart, and these elements are generally not ionic. Thus, carbon will try to share electrons with other atoms to form covalent bonds so that its 2-level has 8 electrons.

Answer 3

i do not understand in case you recognize sufficient about the actual structure of atoms for this answer. All atoms have electrons - one for each proton in its nucleus (you recognize that the electrons orbit the nucleus, suitable?). properly, the at modern-day popular variety of the shape of atoms has the electrons happening in orbit clouds around the nucleus yet at particular distances from the nucleus (stated as "shells") searching on what number there are for that atom. The valence electrons are those contained in the outer-maximum "shell" of electrons and they make certain the electric powered fee (if any) of the atom in question and what it truly is bonding ability will be (i.e. the way it is going to react or connect with different atoms). it truly is as non-technical as i visit assert it without getting all physics-y on you.

Answer 4

Metals are most likely to lose electrons(cations) and non-metals are most likely to gain electrons(anions). The only atoms that do not lose or gain electrons are Noble gases(8th family).

Answer 5

electronegativity of the other atom. higher will gain, lower will donate.