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 ???

Related questions
See all questions in Periodic Trends in Ionic Size
Impact of this question
6016 views around the world
You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License