How to Find the Valence Electrons for Rubidium (Rb)?
The 37th element of the periodic table is rubidium. The element of group-1 is rubidium and its symbol is ‘Rb’. Rubidium is an alkali metal. Rubidium forms bonds through its valence electrons.
What are the valence electrons of rubidium?
The valence electrons are the total number of electrons in the last orbit(shell). The total number of electrons in the last shell after the electron configuration of rubidium is called the valence electrons of rubidium.
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 rubidium 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 electrons of rubidium.
Step-1: Determining the total number of electrons in rubidium
1st we need to know the total number of electrons in the rubidium atom. To know the number of electrons, you need to know the number of protons in rubidium. And to know the number of protons, you need to know the atomic number of the rubidium 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 rubidium 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 rubidium atom. From the periodic table, we see that the atomic number of rubidium is 37. That is, the rubidium atom has a total of thirty-seven electrons.
Step-2: Need to do electron configuration of rubidium
Step-2 is very important. In this step, the electrons of rubidium have to be arranged. We know that rubidium atoms have a total of thirty-seven electrons.
That is, the first shell of rubidium has two electrons, the second shell has eight electrons, 3rd shell has eighteen electrons, 4th shell has eight electrons and the 5th shell has an electron. The number of electrons per shell of rubidium is 2, 8, 18, 8, 1.
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.
The electron configuration of rubidium shows that the last shell of rubidium has an electron. Therefore, the valence electrons of rubidium are one.
What is the valency of rubidium?
The ability of one atom of an element to join another atom during the formation of a molecule is called valency(valence). The number of unpaired electrons in the last orbit of an element is the valency of that element.
The electron configuration of rubidium shows that there is an unpaired electron(5s1) in the last orbit of rubidium. Therefore, the valency of rubidium is 1.
How many valence electrons does rubidium ion(Rb+) 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.
The rubidium atom donates an electron of the last shell to form bonds and turns into a rubidium ion(Rb+). That is, rubidium is a cation element.
Rb – e– → Rb+
The electron configuration of rubidium ion is 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 3d10 4s2 4p6. This electron configuration shows that the rubidium ion(Rb+) has four shells and the last shell has eight electrons.
The electron configuration shows that the rubidium ion has acquired the electron configuration of krypton. Since the last shell of a rubidium ion has eight electrons, the valence electrons of the rubidium ion(Rb+) are eight.