Question #f93b8

1 Answer
Jun 22, 2016

Here's what I got.

Explanation:

The trick here is to realize that because you're dealing with two ionic compounds, #"X"# cannot be a metal, i.e. it cannot be located in group 1 or group 2 of the periodic table.

In other words, you need #"X"# to accept electrons from copper to form anions, which are negatively charged anions. By comparison, copper will form cations, which are positively charged ions.

Likewise, #"X"# cannot be located in group 13 because elements located in this group form #3+# cations.

The only valid possibility is to have #"X"# located in group 17, the halogen group. In ionic compounds, halogens form #1-# anions because they only need one electron to complete their octet.

It's worth mentioning that copper, which is a transition metal, can have more than one valence. On the other hand, element #"X"#, which is a main-group element, cannot have more than one valence.

You will thus have

#"CuX " -> " Cu"^(+) + " X"^(-)#

and

#"CuX"_2 -> " Cu"^(2+) + " X"^(-)#