How to Find the Valence Electrons for Calcium (Ca)?
The 20th element in the periodic table is calcium. Calcium is an alkaline earth metal and its symbol is ‘Ca’. Calcium 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 calcium. Hopefully, after reading this article you will know in detail about this.
What are the valence electrons of calcium?
The 3rd element in group-2 is calcium. All the elements of group-2 are called alkaline earth metals. Therefore, calcium is an alkaline earth metal.
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 calcium is called the valence electrons of calcium.
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 calcium atom?
The valence electron has 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 calcium(Ca).
Step-1: Determining the total number of electrons in calcium
1st we need to know the total number of electrons in the calcium atom. To know the number of electrons, you need to know the number of protons in calcium.
And to know the number of protons, you need to know the atomic number of the calcium 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 calcium(Ca) 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 calcium atom. From the periodic table, we see that the atomic number of calcium is 20. That is, the calcium atom has a total of twenty electrons.
Step-2: Need to do electron configuration of calcium
Step 2 is very important. In this step, the electrons of calcium have to be arranged. We know that calcium atoms have a total of twenty electrons.
The electron configuration of calcium shows that the first shell of calcium has two electrons, the second shell has eight electrons, the 3rd shell has eight 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 a valence electron.
The electron configuration of calcium shows that the last shell of calcium has two electrons. Therefore, the valence electrons of calcium are two.
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What is the valency of calcium?
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 orbital after the electron configuration of an atom is called the valency of that element.
Calcium donates two electrons of the last shell to form a bond. Therefore, the valency of calcium is 2.
How many valence electrons does calcium ion(Ca+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 a cation.
Calcium donates two electrons of the last shell to form a bond and turn into a calcium ion(Ca2+). That is, calcium is a cation element.
Ca – 2e– → Ca2+
The electron configuration of calcium ion(Ca2+) is 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6.
The electron configuration of calcium ion(Ca2+) shows that calcium ion has three shells and the last shell has eight electrons(3s2 3p6).
This electron configuration shows that the calcium atom has acquired the electron configuration of argon. In this case, the valency of the calcium ion is +2.
Since the last shell of a calcium ion has eight electrons, the valence electrons of calcium ion(Ca2+) are eight.
Compound formation of calcium
The valence electrons participate in the formation of bonds with atoms of other elements. The electron configuration of oxygen shows that the valence electrons of oxygen are six.
The calcium atom donates its valence electrons to the oxygen atom and the oxygen atom receives those electrons. As a result, oxygen acquires the electron configuration of neon, and calcium atoms acquire the electron configuration of argon.
Calcium oxide(CaO) is formed by the exchange of electrons between one atom of calcium and one atom of oxygen. Calcium oxide(CaO) is an ionic compound.