Do ions also form special electron configurations? (just as Copper and Chromium do)
I know that because copper has 1 electron in its s-orbital (highest) because it wants to have a full d-orbital (d^10)
But do ions also act this way?
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$\begingroup$ What do you mean by special? $\endgroup$– f pCommented Aug 9, 2013 at 14:38
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$\begingroup$ that it will remove an electron from the s orbital to the d-orbital to have a stable half filled s-orbital and stable fully filled d-orbital $\endgroup$– user2117Commented Aug 10, 2013 at 11:55
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2 Answers
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Check out the NIST database for electronic configurations for atoms and ions in the gas phase. If you play around a bit, you will find that yes, some ionizations will not follow the expected trends from the aufbau principle. For example, search for rhenium and compare the configurations between $\ce{Re^{11+}}$ and $\ce{Re^{17+}}$, and you'll see some of them are unexpected (and rather hard to explain). Osmium shows an anomaly going from $\ce{Os^{+}}$ to $\ce{Os^{2+}}$. There are other elements with ions containing aufbau anomalies, but I can't remember many from the top of my head.
answered Mar 25, 2014 at 1:47
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In short, yes, the electrons will change orbitals to fill shells (even if it is an ion). This is why the transition elements can have more than one ion.
