How to Find the Valence Electrons for Boron (B)?
Boron is the fifth element of the periodic table and the symbol is ‘B’. Boron participates in the formation of bonds through valence electrons.
This article discusses in detail how to easily calculate the number of valence electrons in boron. Hopefully, after reading this article you will know in detail about this.
What are the valence electrons of boron?
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 boron is called the valence electrons of boron.
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 boron 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 boron.
Step-1: Determining the total number of electrons in boron
First we need to know the total number of electrons in the boron atom. To know the number of electrons, you need to know the number of protons in boron.
And to know the number of protons, you need to know the atomic number of the boron 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 boron 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 boron atom. From the periodic table, we see that the atomic number of boron is 5. That is, a boron atom has a total of five electrons.
Step-2: Need to do electron configuration of boron
Step 2 is very important. In this step, the electrons of boron have to be arranged. We know that boron atoms have a total of five electrons.
The electron configuration of boron shows that there are two electrons in the K shell and three in the L shell. That is, the first shell of boron has two and the second shell has three 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 boron shows that the last shell of boron has three electrons. Therefore, the valence electrons of boron are three.
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What is the valency of boron?
The number of unpaired electrons in the last orbital of an element is the valency of that element. The electron configuration of boron(B*) in excited state will be 1s2 2s1 2px1 2py1.
The electron configuration of boron(B) shows that there are three unpaired electrons in the last orbital of boron. Therefore, the valency of the boron is 3.
How many valence electrons of boron ion(B+3) have?
The elements that have 1, 2, or 3 electrons in the last shell donate the electrons in the last shell during bond formation. Boron atom donates three electrons of the last shell to turn into a boron ion(B3+).
The elements that form bonds by donating electrons are called cation. Boron leaves three electrons and turns into a positive ion. Therefore, boron is a cation element.
B – 3e– → B3+
The electron configuration of boron ion(B+3) is 1s2. This electron configuration shows that boron ion(B+3) has only one shell and that shell has a total of two electrons.
The electron configuration shows that the boron atom has acquired the electron configuration of helium.
That is, in this case, the valence of the boron-ion is +3. Since the last shell of a boron-ion has two electrons, the valence electrons of a boron ion(B+3) are two.
Compound formation of boron by valence electrons
Boron participates in the formation of bonds through its valence electrons. This valence electron participates in the formation of bonds with atoms of other elements.
The electron configuration of chlorine shows that the valence electrons of chlorine are seven. The boron atom donates its valence electrons to the chlorine atom and the chlorine atom receives those electrons.
As a result, chlorine acquires the electron configuration of argon and the boron atom acquires the electron configuration of helium.
Boron trichloride(BCl3) is formed by the exchange of electrons between one atom of boron and three atoms of chlorine. Boron trichloride(BCl3) bonding is ionic bonding.