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What is the relative size of the radius of a positive ion to its neutral atom?

Answer 1

Well, in ionizing an atom, you are knocking off 1 or more valence electrons........

#M + Delta rarr M^(+) + e^-#

And given the definition of atomic radius, the radius of an isolated atom is defined by its electronic radius, the ionic radius should be vastly reduced with respect to the atomic radius.

But as chemists, as physical scientists, we should take a look at the numbers, i.e. consider quantitative data.

See here:

The ionic radius of the metal ion is dwarfed by the radius of the parent metal ion. On the other hand, the ionic radius of the non-metal, which is REDUCED to give the ion, dwarfs that of the parent non-metal atom. Measurements are given in #"picometres"# #=# #10^-12*m#.

Is this consistent with our argument?

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Answer 2

Luna Chen

The radius of a positive ion is smaller than that of its corresponding neutral atom.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.