Question
Question: What is the formula for titanium (IV) chloride?...
What is the formula for titanium (IV) chloride?
Solution
According to Aufbau Principle, Pauli exclusion principle and Hund’s rule, the electronic configuration of cations is assigned by removing electrons first in the outermost p orbital, followed by the s orbital and then the d orbital.
Complete answer:
Titanium is a d block element which has the electronic configuration of
[Ar]3d24s2
While is a p block element with very high electronegativity which on while attacking the titanium distorts the configuration resulting the electronic configuration to change such that one of the electron from the s orbital jumps to one of the d orbitals and the configuration becomes:
[Ar]3d34s1
Now all these electrons in the outermost d orbital of the titanium are unpaired.
While the high electronegative chlorine of the p block part of the periodic table, has the electronic configuration:
[Ne]3s23p5
In the outermost p orbital of the chlorine atom there are five electrons present, out of which 4 electrons are paired while one electron is unpaired.
Now on reaction of chlorine with titanium, due to the high electronegativity of the chlorine distorts the outside s and p orbitals resulting in it having 4 unpaired electrons. Now 4 chlorine atoms attack these 4 unpaired electrons resulting in the formation of TiCl4.
Note:
High electronegative atoms have the tendency to distort the outside orbitals so that the greatest number of such electronegative atoms can react and form a stable structure.