How to Find the Valence Electrons for Argon (Ar)?

How to Find the Valence Electrons for Argon (Ar)?

Argon is an inert element and its symbol is ‘Ar’. Argon atoms do not participate in the formation of any bonds. This article discusses in detail how to easily calculate the number of valence electrons in argon. Hopefully, after reading this article you will know in detail about this.

How many protons, electrons and neutrons does an argon atom have?

The nucleus is located in the center of the atom. Protons and neutrons are located in the nucleus. The atomic number of argon(Ar) is 18. The atomic number is the number of protons.

That is, the number of protons in argon is eighteen. Electrons equal to protons are located in a circular shell outside the nucleus. That is, an argon atom has a total of eighteen electrons.

The number of neutrons in an element is obtained from the difference between the number of atomic masses and the number of atoms. That is, neutron number (n) = atomic mass number (A) – atomic number (Z)

We know that the atomic number of argon is 18 and the atomic mass number is about 40(39.95u). Neutron (n) = 40 – 18 = 22. Therefore, the number of neutrons in argon is 22.

What are the valence electrons of argon?

Argon is an element of group-18. The valence electron is the total number of electrons in the last orbit(shell). The total number of electrons in the last shell after the electron configuration of argon is called the valence electrons of argon.

The valence electrons determine the properties of the element and participate in the formation of bonds.

How do you calculate the number of valence electrons in an argon atom?

The valence electron has to be determined by following a few steps. The electron configuration is one of them. It is not possible to determine the valence electron without electron configuration.

Knowing the electron configuration in the right way, it is very easy to determine the valence electrons of all the elements.

However, valence electrons can be easily identified by arranging electrons according to the Bohr principle. Now we will learn how to determine the valence electron of argon(Ar).

Step-1: Determining the total number of electrons in argon

1st we need to know the total number of electrons in the argon atom. To know the number of electrons, you need to know the number of protons in argon. And to know the number of protons, you need to know the atomic number of the argon element.

To know the atomic number we need to take the help of a periodic table. It is necessary to know the atomic number of argon(Ar) elements from the periodic table. The atomic number is the number of protons. And electrons equal to protons are located outside the nucleus.

That is, we can finally say that there are electrons equal to the atomic number in the argon atom. From the periodic table, we see that the atomic number of argon is 18. That is, the argon atom has a total of eighteen electrons.

Step-2: Need to do electron configuration of argon

Step 2 is very important. In this step, the electrons of argon have to be arranged. We know that argon atoms have a total of eighteen electrons. The electron configuration of argon shows that there are two electrons in the K shell, eight in the L shell, and eight in the M shell.

That is, the first shell of argon has two electrons, the second shell has eight electrons and the 3rd shell has eight electrons.

Step-3: Determine the valence shell and calculate the total electrons

The third step is to diagnose the valence shell. The last shell after the electron configuration is called the valence shell. The total number of electrons in a valence shell is called a valence electron.

The electron configuration of argon shows that the last shell of argon has eight electrons. Therefore, the valence electrons of argon are eight.

What is the valency of argon?

The ability of one atom of an element to join another atom during the formation of a molecule is called valency(valence). The number of unpaired electrons in the last orbit of an element is the valency of that element.

The electron configuration of argon shows that the argon atom has no unpaired electrons. There are eight electrons in the last orbit of an argon atom. Therefore, the valency of the argon atom is 0.

Reasons for placing argon in group-18 of the periodic table

The electron configuration of argon shows that the number of electrons in the last orbit(last shell) of the argon(Ar) atom is 8. We know that the number of electrons in the last orbit of an element is the number of groups in that element.

Accordingly, the group of argon is 8 but argon is an inert element. All inert elements are placed in group number 18 in the periodic table. Therefore, argon is placed in group-18 instead of group-8.

Why is argon an inert gas?

The elements in group-18 of the periodic table are inert gas. The inert gas of Group-18 are helium(He), neon(Ne), argon(Ar), krypton(Kr), xenon(Xe), and radon(Rn).

We know that the element in group-18 is argon. The electron configuration of argon shows that the orbit at the end of argon is filled with electrons. Argon does not want to exchange or share any electrons because the last orbit of argon is full of electrons.

And argon does not form any compounds because it does not share any electrons. They do not participate in chemical bonding and chemical reactions.

For this, they are called inert elements. The inert elements are in the form of gas at normal temperatures. For this inert elements are called inert gas. Again for this same reason, inert gas is called a noble gas.