How to Find the Valence Electrons for Beryllium(Be)?
Beryllium is the fourth element of the periodic table and the symbol is ‘Be’. Beryllium participates in the formation of bonds through valence electrons.
This article discusses in detail how to easily calculate the number of valence electrons in beryllium. Hopefully, after reading this article you will know in detail about this.
What are the valence electrons of beryllium?
The valence electron is the total number of electrons in the last orbit. The total number of electrons in the last shell after the electron configuration of beryllium is called the valence electrons of beryllium.
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 beryllium 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 the elements.
However, valence electrons can be easily identified by arranging electrons according to the Bohr principle. Now we will learn how to determine the valence electron of beryllium.
Step-1: Determining the total number of electrons in beryllium
First we need to know the total number of electrons in the beryllium atom. To know the number of electrons, you need to know the number of protons in beryllium.
And to know the number of protons, you need to know the atomic number of the beryllium 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 beryllium 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 beryllium atom. From the periodic table, we see that the atomic number of beryllium is 4. That is, a beryllium atom has a total of four electrons.
Step-2: Need to do electron configuration of beryllium
Step 2 is very important. In this step, the electrons of beryllium have to be arranged. We know that beryllium atoms have a total of four electrons.
The electron configuration of beryllium shows that there are two electrons in the K shell and two in the L shell. That is, the first shell of beryllium has two and the second 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 a valence electron.
The electron configuration of beryllium shows that the last shell of beryllium has two electrons. Therefore, the valence electrons of beryllium are two.
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What is the valency of beryllium?
The ability to bind one atom to another and form compounds is called valency(valence). There are some rules for diagnosing valency.
The number of electrons in an unpaired state in the last orbital after the electron configuration of an atom is called the valency of that element.
The electron configuration of beryllium shows that beryllium has two unpaired electrons in the last orbital. Therefore, the valency of beryllium is 2.
How many valence electrons of beryllium ion(Be+2) 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.
Beryllium donates the electrons of the last shell to form bonds and turns into a beryllium ion(Be+2). That is, beryllium is a cation element.
Be – 2e– → Be+2
The electron configuration of beryllium ion(Be+2) is 1s2. This electron configuration shows that the beryllium ion(Be+2) has only one shell and that shell has a total of two electrons.
The electron configuration shows that the beryllium atom has acquired the electron configuration of helium.
That is, in this case, the valence of the beryllium ion(Be+2) is +2. Since the last shell of a beryllium ion has two electrons, the valence electrons of beryllium ion(Be+2) are two.
Compound formation of beryllium by valence electrons
Beryllium participates in the formation of bonds through its valence electrons. We know that the valence electrons in beryllium are two. This valence electron participates in the formation of bonds with atoms of other elements.
The electron configuration of fluorine shows that the valence electrons of fluorine are seven. The beryllium atom donates its valence electrons to the fluorine atom and the fluorine atom receives those electrons.
As a result, fluorine acquires the electron configuration of neon and the beryllium atom acquires the electron configuration of helium.
Beryllium fluoride(BeF2) is formed by the exchange of electrons between one atom of beryllium and two atoms of fluorine. Beryllium fluoride(BeF2) bonding is ionic bonding.