Ionic Radius

2CRita, 2D Lydia,Katy,Cassandra
• As the atoms of metallic elements produce positively charged ions
(called cations), such as Na ions. By contrast, the atoms of non-
metallic elements form negatively charged ions (called anions), such
as CI ions.
• What pattern in ionic radii do we see going across Period 3?
The positively charged ions have effectively lost their outer shell of electrons (the third
principal quantum shell or energy level) from their original atoms. For this reason, the
cations are much smaller than their atoms. To add to this effect, there is also less
shielding of the outer electrons in these cations compared with their original atoms.
Going across the period, from Na+ to Si4+, the ions get smaller for
reasons similar to those for the decreasing atomic radii across a period.
The increasing nuclear charge attracts the outermost electrons in the
second principal quantum shell closer to the nucleus with increasing
atomic number.
The negatively charged ions are larger than their original atoms. This is
because each atom will have gained one or more extra electrons into
their third principal quantum shell. This increases the repulsion
between its electrons, while the nuclear charge remains constant. This
increases the size of any anion compared with its atom.
As the graph shown,
the anions decrease in
size, going from Na+ to
Si4+, P3- to CI-, as the
nuclear charge
increases across the
period.
 Summary

The ionic radius decreases across the period as the positive charge on the ion
increases and the negative charge on the ion decreases. This is because the
increasingly positive nuclear charge pulls the electrons in the outer shell closer to the
nucleus. In the same period, the negative ions have larger ionic radii than the positive
ions because they have one more electron shell, so the outer electrons are further
from the nucleus and there is more shielding.