{"id":43287,"date":"2025-06-29T17:24:26","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T17:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/?p=43287"},"modified":"2025-06-29T17:24:28","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T17:24:28","slug":"which-of-the-following-ions-has-the-smallest-radii-fe2-co2-ni2-cu2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/which-of-the-following-ions-has-the-smallest-radii-fe2-co2-ni2-cu2\/","title":{"rendered":"Which of the following ions has the smallest radii? Fe2+, Co2+, Ni2+, Cu2+"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Which of the following ions has the smallest radii? Fe2+, Co2+, Ni2+, Cu2+<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\">The Correct Answer and Explanation is:<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To determine which of the ions has the smallest radius, we need to consider the following factors:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Charge of the Ion<\/strong>: All the ions given have the same charge of +2 (Fe\u00b2\u207a, Co\u00b2\u207a, Ni\u00b2\u207a, Cu\u00b2\u207a), meaning they each have lost two electrons. This creates a higher effective nuclear charge (the attractive force exerted by the nucleus on the remaining electrons) which tends to draw the electrons closer to the nucleus.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Electron Configuration<\/strong>: The atomic radii decrease as you move across a period (from left to right) in the periodic table due to an increase in nuclear charge. The effective nuclear charge increases, pulling the electrons more tightly toward the nucleus, leading to a smaller atomic radius.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Fe\u00b2\u207a<\/strong>: The electron configuration of Fe (atomic number 26) is [Ar] 4s\u00b2 3d\u2076. When it forms Fe\u00b2\u207a, it loses two electrons from the 4s orbital, resulting in the configuration [Ar] 3d\u2076.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Co\u00b2\u207a<\/strong>: The electron configuration of Co (atomic number 27) is [Ar] 4s\u00b2 3d\u2077. When it forms Co\u00b2\u207a, it loses two electrons from the 4s orbital, resulting in the configuration [Ar] 3d\u2077.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Ni\u00b2\u207a<\/strong>: The electron configuration of Ni (atomic number 28) is [Ar] 4s\u00b2 3d\u2078. When it forms Ni\u00b2\u207a, it loses two electrons from the 4s orbital, resulting in the configuration [Ar] 3d\u2078.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Cu\u00b2\u207a<\/strong>: The electron configuration of Cu (atomic number 29) is [Ar] 4s\u00b2 3d\u00b9\u2070. When it forms Cu\u00b2\u207a, it loses two electrons from the 4s orbital, resulting in the configuration [Ar] 3d\u2079.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Trends in Ionic Radii<\/strong>: As we move across a period from Fe to Cu, the number of protons (and thus the nuclear charge) increases. This increased nuclear charge pulls the electrons more strongly, resulting in a smaller ionic radius. Therefore, <strong>Cu\u00b2\u207a<\/strong> has the smallest radius among these ions. The reason is that copper has the highest atomic number (29), and as a result, the increased nuclear charge in Cu\u00b2\u207a draws the electrons in more tightly than the ions of Fe\u00b2\u207a, Co\u00b2\u207a, or Ni\u00b2\u207a, which have lower atomic numbers and less effective nuclear charge.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>In conclusion, <strong>Cu\u00b2\u207a<\/strong> has the smallest ionic radius due to its higher nuclear charge, which results in a stronger attraction of electrons to the nucleus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/learnexams-banner5-460.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-43288\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/learnexams-banner5-460.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/learnexams-banner5-460-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/learnexams-banner5-460-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/learnexams-banner5-460-768x768.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Which of the following ions has the smallest radii? Fe2+, Co2+, Ni2+, Cu2+ The Correct Answer and Explanation is: To determine which of the ions has the smallest radius, we need to consider the following factors: In conclusion, Cu\u00b2\u207a has the smallest ionic radius due to its higher nuclear charge, which results in a stronger [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quiz-questions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43287"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43289,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43287\/revisions\/43289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}