Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The valence orbitals in lanthanides are almost entirely non-bonding and as such little effective vibronic coupling takes, hence the spectra from f → f transitions are much weaker and narrower than those from d → d transitions. In general this makes the colors of lanthanide complexes far fainter than those of transition metal complexes.
Lanthanide metals react exothermically with hydrogen to form LnH 2, dihydrides. [1] With the exception of Eu and Yb, which resemble the Ba and Ca hydrides (non-conducting, transparent salt-like compounds),they form black pyrophoric, conducting compounds [6] where the metal sub-lattice is face centred cubic and the H atoms occupy tetrahedral sites. [1]
In chemistry, an unpaired electron is an electron that occupies an orbital of an atom singly, rather than as part of an electron pair. Each atomic orbital of an atom (specified by the three quantum numbers n, l and m) has a capacity to contain two electrons ( electron pair ) with opposite spins .
Lanthanum makes up 39 mg/kg of the Earth's crust, [48] [49] behind neodymium at 41.5 mg/kg and cerium at 66.5 mg/kg. Despite being among the so-called "rare earth metals", lanthanum is thus not rare at all, but it is historically so-named because it is rarer than "common earths" such as lime and magnesia, and at the time it was recognized only ...
The p orbital can hold a maximum of six electrons, hence there are six columns in the p-block. Elements in column 13, the first column of the p-block, have one p-orbital electron. Elements in column 14, the second column of the p-block, have two p-orbital electrons. The trend continues this way until column 18, which has six p-orbital electrons.
The d-block contraction is less pronounced than the lanthanide contraction but arises from a similar cause. In this case, it is the poor shielding capacity of the 3d-electrons which affects the atomic radii and chemistries of the elements immediately following the first row of the transition metals , from gallium ( Z = 31) to bromine ( Z = 35).
The lanthanide contraction only partially accounts for this anomaly. [11] Because the 6s 2 orbital is contracted by relativistic effects and may therefore only weakly contribute to any chemical bonding, Hg–Hg bonding must be mostly the result of van der Waals forces. [11] [13] [14] Mercury gas is mostly monatomic, Hg(g).
Most lanthanides can use only three electrons as valence electrons, as afterwards the remaining 4f electrons are too strongly bound: cerium is an exception because of the stability of the empty f-shell in Ce 4+ and the fact that it comes very early in the lanthanide series, where the nuclear charge is still low enough until neodymium to allow ...