Group 16 Flashcards
Group 16 elements
Oxygen - Sulphur - Selenium - Tellurium - Polonium
What are the group 16 elements also called? Why?
Chalcogens
Chalcogen in Greek means brass (whose main constituent is copper). It is used to show that most copper minerals contain oxygen or Sulphur
Occurrence of oxygen
- Oxygen is the most abundant element on Earth
- It forms 46.6% of the Earth’s crust
- It also constitutes 20.5% of dry air
Occurrence of sulphur
- Combined sulphur occurs mainly as sulphate
- Or even as sulphides - galena, zinc blende
- It is a part of organic materials like hair, wool, proteins, eggs
- It is found in traces as H2S in volcanoes
Gypsum
CaSO4.2H2O
Epsom salt
MgSO4.7H2O
Baryte
BaSO4
Copper pyrites
CuFeS2
Occurrence of Se, Te and Po
- Se and Te occurs as selenides and tellurides in sulphide ores
- Po is a decay product of uranium and thorium
Electronic configuration
ns2np4
Discuss atomic radii trend
- Atomic size increases as we go down the group due to subsequent increase increase in the number of shells
- Oxygen atom is exceptionally small though
Discuss ionization enthalpy trend
- Decreases down the group due to increase in size
2. Should be more than Group 15 but is actually less because group 15 has stable half filled configuration
Discuss electron gain enthalpy
- Oxygen has less negative value because of its compact nature but from sulphur to the end of the group, value keeps decreasing
O > S < Se < Te < Po
Discuss electronegativity trend
Oxygen has highest electronegativity after fluorine
The electronegativity decreases down the group with increasing size i.e., metallic character increases down the group
Is Po radioactive? What is its half life
Po is a radioactive short lived element.
It has a half life of 13.8 days
Physical properties of group 15 elements
- They all show allotropy
- Their MP, BP increases with increasing size
- O, S are non-metals
- Se, Te are metalloids
- Po is a non-metal
Why is there a large difference in BP/MP of oxygen and sulphur
Because of their atomicities
Oxygen exists as a diatomic molecule while sulphur exists as a polyatomic molecule (S8)
Discuss oxidation state variation
- O tends to show -2 because of its high electronegativity except with OF2 where OS is +2
- Stability of -2 decreases down the group.
- +4 and +6 is more common in the other elements
- S, Se and Te tend to show +4 with oxygen and +6 with fluorine
- Stability of +4 increases down the group while +6 decreases due to inert pair effect
- Bonding in +4, +6 are covalent
Anomalous behavior of oxygen
- Because of its small size and high electronegativity, it forms strong hydrogen bonds in H2O which is not seen in H2S
- Has a maximum covalence of four due to absence of d orbitals but in practice, covalence rarely exceeds two
Discuss hydrides formed
- Of the form H2E
- Their acidic character increases down the group due to decrease in BDE of H-E bond
- Thermal stability also decreases down the group
- Except H2O, they are all good reducing agents and this reducing character increases down the group
Discuss properties of EO2
- Their reducing character decreases down the group
- SO2 is a reducing agent while TeO2 is an oxidizing agent
- O3 and SO2 are gases while SeO2 is a solid
- They are all acidic in nature
Discuss properties of EO3
- Not formed by oxygen
2. SO3, SeO3 and TeO3 are all acidic in nature
What kind of halides are formed? How does stability vary
- EX2, EX4 and EX6 halides are formed
- The stability varies as:
F- > Cl- > Br- > I-
Discuss properties of EX6
- Only hexafluorides are stable
- They are octahedral
- They are gaseous in nature
- SF6 is particularly stable for steric reasons