How to Find the Valence Electrons for Scandium (Sc)?
The 21st element in the periodic table is scandium. The element of group-3 is scandium and its symbol is ‘Sc’. Scandium participates in the formation of bonds through its valence electrons.
This article discusses in detail how to easily calculate the number of valence electrons in scandium. Hopefully, after reading this article you will know in detail about this.
What are the valence electrons of scandium?
The 1st element in group-3 is scandium. The elements in groups 3-12 are called transition elements. The valence electron is the total number of electrons in the last orbit.
But in the case of transition elements, the valence electrons remain in the inner shell(orbit).
Because the electron configuration of scandium shows that the last electrons enter the d-orbital. The valence electrons determine the properties of the element and participate in the formation of bonds.
How do you calculate the number of valence electrons in a scandium atom?
The valence electrons have to be determined by following a few steps. The electron configuration is one of them. It is not possible to determine the valence electron without electron configuration.
Knowing the electron configuration in the right way, it is very easy to determine the valence electrons of all elements.
The valence electrons of the transition element cannot be determined according to Bohr’s atomic model. Because the valence electrons of the transition elements are located in the inner shell.
However, the valence electron of the transition element can be easily determined according to the Aufbau principle. Now we will learn how to determine the valence electron of scandium(Sc).
Step-1: Determining the total number of electrons in scandium
1st we need to know the total number of electrons in the scandium atom. To know the number of electrons, you need to know the number of protons in scandium.
And to know the number of protons, you need to know the atomic number of the scandium element. To know the atomic number we need to take the help of a periodic table.
It is necessary to know the atomic number of scandium elements from the periodic table. The atomic number is the number of protons. And electrons equal to protons are located outside the nucleus.
That is, we can finally say that there are electrons equal to the atomic number in the scandium atom.
From the periodic table, we see that the atomic number of scandium(Sc) is 21. That is, the scandium atom has a total of twenty-one electrons.
Step-2: Need to do electron configuration of scandium
Step 2 is very important. In this step, the electrons of scandium have to be arranged.
The electron configuration of scandium shows that the first shell of scandium has two electrons, the second shell has eight electrons, the 3rd shell has nine electrons and the 4th shell has two electrons.
Step-3: Determine the valence shell and calculate the total electrons
The third step is to diagnose the valence shell. The last shell after the electron configuration is called the valence shell.
The total number of electrons in a valence shell is called valence electrons. But the valence electrons of the transition elements are located in the inner orbit.
For the transition element, the valence electrons have to be determined by adding the total electrons of the d-orbital to the electrons in the last orbit of the atom.
The electron configuration of scandium shows that the last shell of scandium has two electrons and the d-orbital has a total of an electron. Therefore, the valence electrons of scandium are three.
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What is the valency of scandium?
The ability of one atom of an element to join another atom during the formation of a molecule is called valency(valence). There are some rules for diagnosing valency.
The number of electrons in an unpaired state in the last shell after the electron configuration of an atom is called the valency of that element.
Valency is determined from the electron configuration of the element in the excited state.
The electron configuration of scandium excited state is Sc*(21) = 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 3d1 4s1 4px1. Here, scandium has three unpaired electrons. So the valency of scandium is 3.
How many valence electrons does scandium ion(Sc3+) have?
The elements that have 1, 2, or 3 electrons in the last shell donate the electrons in the last shell during bond formation. The elements that form bonds by donating electrons are called cations.
Scandium donates the electron of the last shell to form bonds and turns into a scandium ion(Sc3+). That is, scandium is a cation element.
Sc – 3e– → Sc3+
The electron configuration of scandium ion(Sc3+) is 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6.
This electron configuration shows that the scandium ion has three shells and the last shell has eight electrons.
This electron configuration shows that the scandium ion(Sc3+) has acquired the electron configuration of argon.
In this case, the valency of the scandium ion is +3. Since the last shell of a scandium ion has eight electrons, the valence electrons of scandium ion(Sc3+) are eight.