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10 Jan 2010 19:13:51 IST

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Why atomic radius of gallium is smaller than alluminium?

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Why atomic radius of gallium is smaller than alluminium?

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AViK

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11 Jan 2010 21:15:48 IST

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http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/chem07/chem07193.htm

aditya vardhan

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12 Jan 2010 00:01:31 IST

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While going down the group, atomic radius increases and not decreases as explained in the given source.

In this case the reason is: due to the poor shielding effect of inner d-electrons, the effective nuclear attraction will be more and hence the size decreases. It also causes Ga to exists in dimeric form.

Source: AdiChemAdi

Also see the NCERT textbook.

Adi

edison

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29 Jan 2012 19:05:41 IST

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Atomic radius of Ga is less than that of Al. This can be understood from the variation in the inner core of the electronic configuration. The presence of additional 10 d-electrons offer only poor screening effect for the outer electrons from the increased nuclear charge in gallium. Consequently, the atomic radius of gallium (135 pm) is less than that of aluminium (143 pm).

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