How to Find the Valence Electrons for Titanium (Ti)?
Titanium is a transition element. Therefore, the valence electrons of titanium are determined differently. The last orbit of a titanium atom has two electrons but its valence electrons are not two.
This article discusses in detail how to easily calculate the number of valence electrons in titanium. Hopefully, after reading this article you will know in detail about this.
What are the valence electrons of titanium?
The 1st element in group-4 is titanium. The elements in groups 3-12 are called transition elements. The valence electrons are 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 titanium 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.
Why does titanium have 4 valence electrons and not 2?
Titanium (Ti) is an element located in Group 4 of the periodic table. The number of valence electrons an element has is determined by its position in the periodic table.
In the case of titanium, it has an atomic number of 22, which means it has 22 electrons. The electronic configuration of titanium is 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 4s2 3d2.
The valence electrons of an atom are the electrons in the outermost energy level or shell. For titanium, the outermost energy level is the 4s orbital, which contains 2 electrons.
In addition to the 4s electrons, titanium also has 2 valence electrons in the 3d orbital. Therefore, titanium has a total of 4 valence electrons (2 from the 4s orbital and 2 from the 3d orbital).
It’s worth noting that when titanium forms chemical compounds, it typically loses its 4s electrons before its 3d electrons, leading to a common oxidation state of +4.
However, in certain compounds and reactions, titanium can also exhibit other oxidation states such as +3 or +2, where it may involve the 3d electrons as well.
How do you calculate the number of valence electrons in a titanium 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 titanium(Ti).
Step-1: Determining the total number of electrons in titanium
1st we need to know the total number of electrons in the titanium atom. To know the number of electrons, you need to know the number of protons in titanium.
And to know the number of protons, you need to know the atomic number of the titanium 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 titanium(Ti) 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 titanium atom. From the periodic table, we see that the atomic number of titanium is 22. That is, the titanium atom has a total of twenty-two electrons.
Step-2: Need to do electron configuration of titanium
Step 2 is very important. In this step, the electrons of titanium have to be arranged.
The electron configuration of titanium shows that the first shell of titanium has two electrons, the second shell has eight electrons, the 3rd shell has ten 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 titanium shows that the last shell of titanium has two electrons and the d-orbital has a total of two electrons. Therefore, the valence electrons of titanium are four.
Video for Finding the Valence Electrons for Titanium (Ti)
What is the valency of titanium?
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.
The ground state electron configuration of titanium is 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 3dxy1 3dyz1 4s2.
This electron configuration shows that the last shell of the titanium atom has two unpaired electrons. So the valency of titanium is 2.
When a titanium atom is excited, then the titanium atom absorbs energy. As a result, an electron in the 4s orbital jumps to the 4px sub-orbital.
Therefore, the electron configuration of titanium(Ti*) in excited state will be 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 3dxy1 3dyz1 4s1 4px1.
Here, titanium has four unpaired electrons. Therefore, the valency of titanium is 4.
How many valence electrons does titanium ion(Ti4+) 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 cation.
The titanium atom donates two electrons in 4s orbital and two electrons in 3d orbital to convert to titanium ion(Ti4+). Therefore titanium is a cation element.
Ti – 4e– → Ti4+
The electron configuration of this titanium ion(Ti4+) is 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6.
This electron configuration shows that the titanium ion has three shells and the last shell has eight electrons.
This electron configuration shows that the titanium ion(Ti4+) has acquired the electron configuration of argon and it achieves an octave full stable electron configuration.
That is, in this case, the valency of the titanium ion(Ti4+) is +4. Since the last shell of a titanium ion has eight electrons, the valence electrons of titanium ion(Ti4+) are eight.