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Grade 12Inorganic Chemistry

why Ca2+ has low ionisation enthalpy than S2-?
do S2- has size geater than Ca2+?
does F2- has size greater than Mg2+?

Profile image of Jasmeey kaur
8 Years agoGrade 12
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1 Answer

Profile image of Arun
8 Years ago
All the elements here are of the same period with the exception of Ca2+. Ionic radii decreases across a period from Na+ to Al3+ as the number of electrons stay the same while the number of protons increase, thus the protons will pull the electrons closer, causing ionic radii to decrease. There is a big jump in ionic radii from cations to anions across a period, as anions have extra electrons which repel each other, causing ionic radii to increase. Ionic radii for anions decrease across a period, as the number of protons increases. S2- has one less proton than Cl-, thus there is less attraction between the protons and electrons and thus ionic radii is bigger. For Ca2+, the same theory applies. Ca2+ has similar number of electrons have S2-, but more protons, thus attraction is stronger in Ca2+, causing ionic radii to be smaller than S2-.