Explain, using the electron configuration of Al, why aluminum has a +3 charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The correct answer and explanation is:<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The electron configuration of aluminum (Al) is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1s22s22p63s23p11s^2 2s^2 2p^6 3s^2 3p^1<\/p>\n\n\n\n Aluminum has an atomic number of 13, meaning it has 13 electrons in its neutral state. The configuration shows that the first energy level (1s) holds 2 electrons, the second level (2s and 2p) holds 8 electrons, and the third level (3s and 3p) holds 3 electrons, with one electron in the 3p orbital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The tendency of atoms is to achieve a stable electron configuration similar to that of the nearest noble gas, which in this case is neon (Ne), with the configuration 1s22s22p61s^2 2s^2 2p^6. For aluminum to reach this stable configuration, it needs to lose three electrons from its outermost shell (the 3s and 3p orbitals), leaving it with a configuration of 1s22s22p61s^2 2s^2 2p^6, which mirrors neon’s electron structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When aluminum loses three electrons, it forms a positive ion with a charge of +3, since the loss of negatively charged electrons results in a net positive charge. The process of ionization for aluminum can be summarized as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Al\u2192Al3++3e\u2212Al \\rightarrow Al^{3+} + 3e^-<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thus, aluminum achieves the stable electron configuration of neon, and its resulting ion has a charge of +3. This is why aluminum commonly forms a +3 ion, which is highly stable. The +3 charge is characteristic of metals in Group 13 of the periodic table, as they tend to lose three electrons to reach a noble gas-like configuration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Explain, using the electron configuration of Al, why aluminum has a +3 charge. The correct answer and explanation is: The electron configuration of aluminum (Al) is: 1s22s22p63s23p11s^2 2s^2 2p^6 3s^2 3p^1 Aluminum has an atomic number of 13, meaning it has 13 electrons in its neutral state. The configuration shows that the first energy level […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-251326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exams-certification"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}