Electron configurations magnesium cation

Nearly all metals form cations, as can be seen by examining their electron configuration. For example, consider the configuration for the Group 2 metal magnesium, Mg. 

Magnesium, an alkaline earth metal, has two valence electrons that it loses to form a cation with a 2+ charge. The electron configuration for the magnesium cation is... 

Similarly, alkaline earth metals, with an outer electron configuration of ns, also tend to be reactive metals, losing their ns electrons to form 2+ cations (T Figure 9.31). For example, consider magnesium ... 

More than one electron may be donated (or accepted) to achieve noble-gas elecfronic configurations. Magnesium, for example, has two valence electrons. Donation to an jppropriate acceptor produces the corresponding doubly charged cation, Mg, with the elecfronic sfruc-ture of neon. In this way, the ionic bonds of typical salts are formed. 

Fig. 4.9 Energies of free cations and of ionic compounds as a function of the oxidation state of the cation. Top Lines represent the ionization energy necessary to form the +1. +2, +3, and + 4 cations of sodium, magnesium, and aluminum. Note that although the ionization energy increases most sharply when a noble gas configuration is broken, isolated cations are always less stable in Itiifher oxidation states. Bottom Lines represent the sum of ionization energy and ionic bonding energy for hypothetical molecules MX, MXj, MXj, and MX in which the interatomic distance, r, has been arbitrarily set at 200 pm. Note that the most stable compounds (identified by arrows) arc NaX, MgXj, and AlXj. (All of the.se molecules will be stabilized additionally to a small extent by the electron affinity of X.)...

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