Identifying Radicals
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Identifying Radicals
In Wednesday's lecture, Lavelle went over how radicals are exceptions to the octet rule. How do we identify whether a molecule is a radical or not? Would we just have to draw the Lewis dot structure? Thank you!
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Re: Identifying Radicals
I'm not sure if we'll be expected to draw out radicals, but you can always tell if there's a singluar lone electron that's unpaired.
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Re: Identifying Radicals
I believe that if there ever if one electron that is not paired in a molecule it would be considered a radical.
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Re: Identifying Radicals
If an atom or molecule has an unpaired valence electron, then it would be a radical. This is the same for ions also.
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Re: Identifying Radicals
Usually radicals are molecules with unpaired electrons. For example, OH will have one unpaired electron which causes it to be highly reactive and unstable.
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Re: Identifying Radicals
Another way to tell is if the total amount of valence electrons is an odd number since that would mean that there is an unpaired electron.
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Re: Identifying Radicals
This was actually really helpful for me, because I didn't quite understand what a radical was. My follow up question is whether any element can be a radical or if only a certain group are radicals.
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Re: Identifying Radicals
From what I understood, radicals are when atoms have unpaired electrons in their outer shell.
Re: Identifying Radicals
If you're drawing a lewis structure and notice there's a single lonely unpaired electron.
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Re: Identifying Radicals
Often times, molecules that would have radicals are shown as ions to subtract or add electrons to get rid of the radical, however, if a molecule has an odd amount of electrons, you would know that there is a radical because there is one electron without another electron to form a bonding pair or a lone pair with.
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Re: Identifying Radicals
I think that only atoms with unpaired valence electrons can be radicals since if they had only pairs of electrons but lost or gained some to be left with an unpaired electron, they'd become ions, which are not radicals. Keep in mind though that some of the elements that are naturally radicals form diatomic molecules because of their natural reactivity. A few examples would be the halogens, which all have an unpaired electron, or oxygen, which has two unpaired electrons.Shrinidhy Srinivas 1I wrote:This was actually really helpful for me, because I didn't quite understand what a radical was. My follow up question is whether any element can be a radical or if only a certain group are radicals.
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Re: Identifying Radicals
Hi! The best way to identify a radical is that there will be an unpaired electron on one of the atoms.
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Re: Identifying Radicals
Radicals have an unpaired electron and would be identified with a single dot rather than a lone pair or bond in Lewis structures.
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Re: Identifying Radicals
Usually, when you count up the valence electrons and there is an odd number you will have a radical. You can see this when you draw out the lewis structure and there is a single unpaired electron represented by a dot.
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Re: Identifying Radicals
The easiest way to identify a radical is to first count the amount of valence electrons. Once you do this, anytime you have an odd amount of electrons, it is a radical. But often, they can be balanced you may have just forgot to add or subtract electrons according to the charge.
Re: Identifying Radicals
Hi Kaitlyn. You can identify radicals by normally drawing out a Lewis structure and assigning formal charges to find the lowest formal charge. An example is laughing gas or nitric oxide (NO) and seeing that the lowest formal charge is when N has a radical.
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Re: Identifying Radicals
I was having trouble with this as well. All of the responses really helped. Thank you all!!
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Re: Identifying Radicals
Radicals are species that have electrons with unpaired spins, which means that they are not a part of a pair. This can be seen using a lewis structure. Radicals are also highly reactive and have a fleeting existence. Radicals also do not fulfill the octet rule because they do not have enough valence electrons to complete the octet.
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Re: Identifying Radicals
you could use the definition that the radicals are highly reactive and ofeten exist for short time.
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Re: Identifying Radicals
Hello! To add on to previous points, molecules with one unpaired electron are called radicals and those with two unpaired electrons are called biradicals.
A picture here for examples:
A picture here for examples:
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Re: Identifying Radicals
You can tell if there is an odd number of valance electrons or on the diagram there is a lone electron.
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Re: Identifying Radicals
A radical is a species with an unpaired electron. This lone electron makes the species incredibly reactive.
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Re: Identifying Radicals
You can identify a radical when there is the presence of a lone unpaired electron. One example is CH3.
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