As a neutral sulfur atom gains two electrons, what happens to the radius of the atom?

1 Answer
anor277
Jun 29, 2018

Would we not expect the radius to INCREASE upon reduction?

Explanation:

Why...well we begin with the sulfur atom, #Z=16#...now particle size is a function of nuclear charge, #Z#, and SHIELDING by other electrons.. We would expect shielding to win in this given that we have reduced the sulfur atom to give #S^(2-)#...

But as chemists, as physical scientists, we should take a good, hard, long at the data... This site tells us that the size of the sulfur atom is #100xx10^-12*m#, and that of the sulfide ion is ???

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