What is an ionic radius? What is the difference between atomic and ionic radius?

What is an ionic radius? What is the difference between atomic and ionic radius?

Atoms are considered as the building block of all metals and as such this is important that we should know as to how the metals are formed.  The atoms that are present in the metals can be converted to atoms by adding one or more electrons from outside. Both the atoms and the ions can be measured in terms of the #D structure and so as such there will be a requirement that we should be able to understand each one of them. For this it will be important that we understand both the concept of atomic radius and ionic radius.

What is Atomic Radius?

Atomic radius is defined as the distance that is calculated from the nucleus of an atom to its boundary that is to be measured in the electron cloud. In simple words we can say that it is defined as the distance from the nucleus to the farthest electron thatwill belong to that atom.  This is to be noted here that atomic radius can only be defined for the neutral and isolated atoms

Trends of the elements in the periodic table

If we have a look at the trends of the elements in the periodic table then there is a pattern of the atomic radius of elements.  The most important thing here is that along with the period, the atomic radius of the elements tends to decrease in the periodic table. The elements in the same period will always have the same number of electron shells. However in case the number of electrons that is present is higher, the attraction that will exist between the electrons and the nucleus will also be high.  In the beginning, in any period, we will see that therearea less number of electrons that is present in the outermost orbital. Then in that case the attraction from the nucleus is less. In this case, the atom is large, andso the atomic radius is also large. But as we move along a period, the number of protons in the nucleus also goes on increasing along with the number of electrons present in the atom. Therefore, it can be seen here that the attraction force between electrons and the nucleus is high. This will lead to the size of the atom to shrink and so in this case the atomic radius is reduced.  In the similar manner as we move along a period, the size of the atom is decreased gradually. This will also have an impact on the atomic radius.

What is Ionic Radius?

Ionic radiusis defined as the radius of an atom’s ion. This is to be noted here that the ions cannot exists in the Free State. So in case, there is a positively charged ion, in that case it will react with a negatively charged ion and in this process will make the necessary changes so it can become a neutral compound. These types of compounds that are compounds are known as ionic compounds as they are made of ions. An ionic compound will always be the combination of anions and cations. The cation is always said to be smaller in size because the cation is formed by removing one or more electrons from an existingatom. The anion is large in size because here there is a presence of extra electrons that are repelled by the nucleus. This will result in the increase of the distance between the nucleus and the farthest electron that will be present in the electron cloud.

The most accurate way through which the ionic radius be calculated is to divide the distance between two nuclei of two ions and that should be done according to their sizes. Say for example, if there is an ionic compound thatis composed of a cation and an anion that in that case it will have an atomic size that will be three times larger. In this case the distance between the two nuclei should be divided by 4 so as toobtain the cation radius.

Difference between Atomic And Ionic Radius

• The atomic radius is said to be the radius of the atom. The ionic radius is the radius of the ion of the atom
• The atomic radius can be calculated as the distance that is there from the center of the atom to the boundary of the atom cloud. The ionic radius is however calculated by dividing the distance between the two nuclei of the two ions of the two atoms.
• he neutral atoms of the elements are of the same size so the atomic radius will be the same. However, the cations will have a smaller radius then the ions.
• The atomic radius is determined using the concepts of neutral atoms. The ions are dependent on anions and cations

The concepts are better explained on the online site that provides excellent materials to study along with excellent examples. It is also possible to get useful video tutorials as well.