How do you find the electronic configuration for ions?
1 Answer
You find the ground state configuration of negative ions by continuing the filling order as for atoms and (with one exception) by reversing the order for positive ions.
Explanation:
The ground state of an atom or ion is the state in which all its electrons are in the lowest energy orbitals possible.
Negative Ions
You form negative ions by adding electrons until you reach a noble gas configuration. For example,
Positive Ions
You form positive ions by removing electrons until you reach a noble gas configuration.
The order of removal is
For example,
Transition metal ions are hard to predict, because they can lose
Usually, you are not required to predict the ground states for transition metal ions, but you must be able to write the electron configurations when given the symbols for the ions.
