Ferrous to Ferric

[hospitaldoctor1]

What is the electron removed from ferrous to ferric?
Does it go from 3d6 to 3d5?

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[Omni]

When filling up orbitals, you need to use that rule, example:
1s 2s2p 3s3p 4s 3d etc....
When you are taking off electrons, you strip it from the outermost orbital and work your way down in order.

Since iron is [Ar] 3d6 4s2, you start from the 4s2 and work your way down to how ever many electrons you need to strip.

 

[hospitaldoctor1]

Could you please elaborate?
So ferrous is 4s2 3d6 and ferric is 4s2 3d5?
OR is ferrous is 4s2 3d6 and ferric is 4s1 3d6?
why?
Which electron is removed when going from ferrous to ferric?

 

[Isoprop]

What is the electron removed from ferrous to ferric?
Does it go from 3d6 to 3d5?

Yup.

For transition metals, you remove from the s orbital before you remove from d. Iron (II) cation has an electron config of [Ar] 3d6. There are no s electrons, so you move down to 3d5 for iron (III) ion.

Edit: so the e config for ferric is [Ar] 3d5.

 

[wanderer]

Yup.

For transition metals, you remove from the s orbital before you remove from d. Iron (II) cation has an electron config of [Ar] 3d6. There are no s electrons, so you move down to 3d5 for iron (III) ion.

Edit: so the e config for ferric is [Ar] 3d5.

Might iron (II) be more stable as [Ar]4s1 3d5 compared to [Ar]3d6, because the former has more unpaired electrons? This is true for certain uncharged metals (like copper) but is it also true for transition metal cations?

 

[Omni]

Could you please elaborate?
So ferrous is 4s2 3d6 and ferric is 4s2 3d5?
OR is ferrous is 4s2 3d6 and ferric is 4s1 3d6?
why?
Which electron is removed when going from ferrous to ferric?

the electrons have a specific way of filling up the orbitals, according to the Aufbau principle. However, when stripping of electrons, you start from the OUTERMOST orbitals.
Basically, you start with the orbital that has the greater n, and start from there. The reason is because the outermost electrons have less of the effect of the nucleus, so they are more prone to coming off.

 

[Isoprop]

Might iron (II) be more stable as [Ar]4s1 3d5 compared to [Ar]3d6, because the former has more unpaired electrons? This is true for certain uncharged metals (like copper) but is it also true for transition metal cations?

I don't know. I know they are both stable because they both have half filled orbitals. But I can't really compare iron (II) to iron (III).