Focus Exercise 2.27

[Stella Nguyen 1J]

Hi everyone!

For this problem, I understand that none of the compounds given are considered radicals because they do not have an unpaired electron. I was a little confused by the answer that the solution manual gave for part (b) of this problem, which states that "all of these species are expected to be diamagnetic, so therefore none are radicals." I was wondering what diamagnetic meant?

2.27: (a) Draw a Lewis structure for each of the following species: CH3+; CH4; CH3–; CH2; CH2^2+; CH^2−
(b) Identify each as a radical or not.
(c) Rank them in order of increasing HCH bond angles. Explain your choices.

Thank you so much!

[Charlotte Adams 1A]

I believe diamagnetic just means that there are no unpaired electrons

[Josh Chou 3K]

Diamagnetic means that the substance does not have any unpaired electrons. In the case of this problem, that means that all of the electrons in each compound are either in a bonding pair or a lone pair, but there are no single, lone electrons

[Samiha Molla 3G]

I think it just means that there are no unpaired electrons, and like you mentioned none of them have those!

[Marco Morales 2G]

I had question about the radical part. So they are not radicals because they at least have paired electrons? So they're only radicals if the central atom has 1 unpaired electron?