Question

What stable ion sulphur should form based on its electronic configuration?

Answer 1

Hint : Atoms who have their outermost shell filled completely with or electrons or else totally empty are stable. By exchanging electrons in an atom that is by donating or accepting electrons atoms can get stability.

Complete Step By Step Answer:
The sulphur ion which will be stable is known as sulphide ion, that is ${S^{2 - }}$ .
A sulphur atom which is neutral has $16$ electrons, that is it has atomic number $16$ which means there are $16$ protons in the nucleus. Since the negative and positive charge is equal it is a neutral atom.
Let's look at the electronic configuration of sulphur $1{s^2}2{s^2}2{p^6}3{s^2}3{p^4}$ , the valence shell has six electrons in it that is $3s$ and $3p$ . But it wants to get stable. By using the octet rule if a sulphur atom gets two more electrons it will fulfil the octet rule which means it will get stable. So it will get $2 -$ charge on it.
So, the stable sulphur ion would be ${S^{2 - }}$ .

Note :
Each and every atom wants to get stable which they can do by completing its valence shell so that some lose electrons and some gain few electrons. Noble gases are already stable hence they are less likely to form an ionic bonding.