In: Chemistry
Which of the following is likely to have the greatest exothermic hydration enthalpy? A) Sr2+ B) Na+ C) Mg2+ D) Ca2+ E) K+
Hydration enthalpy is the amount of enthalpy change that accompanies the dissolution of 1 mol of gaseous ion in water.
More the charge in the cation, more will be its power to polarise the water molecule and hence there will be more hydration.
Hence, we can safely say that the exothermic hydraion enthalpies of Na+ and K+ are going to be much smaller than that of Sr2+ ,Mg2+ and Ca2+.
Another factor that determines the extent of hydraiton is the radius of ion.
If the ion is small in size, it has more polarizing power because of concentration of charge on it. Thus, smaller the ion, higher is the exothermic hydration enthalpy.
Among Mg2+ ,Ca2+, Sr2+,
Mg2+ has the smallest size as it belogns to the 3rd period in groupII and Ca2+ and Sr2+ belongs to the 4th and 5th period of the same group. And we all know the size increases down the group. Hence, we will conclude that the exothermic hydration enthalpy of
Mg2+ is likely to be greatest among the given options.
hence, the correct choice is c) Mg2+