Free Radicals (1 Viewer)

[lilyyobrien]

Hi Guys,
I'm kinda confused about free radicals. What actually is so different about them?
When drawing the dot structures for oxygen, the only thing that's different is the electron positions.
If they're neutral, why are they so reactive?
If somebody could explain that would be great

 

[Drsoccerball]

Hi Guys,
I'm kinda confused about free radicals. What actually is so different about them?
When drawing the dot structures for oxygen, the only thing that's different is the electron positions.
If they're neutral, why are they so reactive?
If somebody could explain that would be great

Theyre so reactive because theyre missing electrons were there use to be electrons

 

[Ekman]

Theyre so reactive because theyre missing electrons were there use to be electrons

That is untrue, ions also have missing electrons. Radicals are different, they have one ore more unpaired electron in their outermost shell, making them incredibly reactive as its preferable for electrons to be in pairs, hence causing them to react with literally anything.

 

[Drsoccerball]

That is untrue, ions also have missing electrons. Radicals are different, they have one ore more unpaired electron in their outermost shell, making them incredibly reactive as its preferable for electrons to be in pairs, hence causing them to react with literally anything.

lol thats basically what i said...

 

[Ekman]

lol thats basically what i said...

Not really, your definition included ions as well, the whole purpose of naming an atom as a radical is because of its high reactivity that originates from the unpaired electron.

 

[Librah]

That is untrue, ions also have missing electrons

???

 

[someth1ng]

You can either argue it as electron are not paired or the orbitals are not filled - in most cases, the smaller atoms want 8 electrons in their outer shell (boron being an exception, transition metals usually follow 18 electrons - not important for HSC) and they will do anything they can to do that. Also, since I think this is somewhat relevant (not to HSC, but to being a good chemist), an oxygen atom by itself would have 2 pairs and 2 unpaired electrons, not 3 pairs - it's an effect of the quantum nature of atoms, basically, in your electron shell, there are 4 smaller suborbitals each holding 2 electrons. The electrons are spread apart as much as possible since electrons repel each other and the best way to do that is to have 2 pairs and 2 unpaired electrons.

 

[Fizzy_Cyst]

They are so reactive as a single electron is often energetically unfavourable. Electron pairs often exist at a lower energy than the single electron. Hence, the single, unpaired electron wants to achieve this more stable electron configuration. Hence it will be extremely reactive in order to achieve this