Saturated Unsaturated and Supersaturatedīond Length is the average distance between the two nuclei of atoms bonded together in a covalent bond.Reaction Quotient and Le Chatelier's Principle.The table below shows the trend in electron affinities. Prediction of Element Properties Based on Periodic Trends Ionic compounds form because metals want to give up valence electrons and nonmetals want to gain.Molecular Structures of Acids and Bases.Ion and Atom Photoelectron Spectroscopy.Elemental Composition of Pure Substances.Application of Le Chatelier's Principle.Structure, Composition & Properties of Metals and Alloys.Intramolecular Force and Potential Energy.
The similarity in size of the two ions contributes to the low solubility of BaSO 4 in water.Ĭombining all our conclusions about solubility, we note the following trends:ġ) Increasing size mismatch between the anion and cation leads to greater solubility, so CsF and LiI are the most soluble alkali halides.Ģ) Increasing covalency leads to lower solubility in the salts (due to larger E L. Space-filling models showing the van der Waals surfaces of Ba 2 + and SO 4 2. Putting both trends together, we see that low solubility is most often encountered when the anion and cation match well in their sizes, especially when one or both are multiply charged. For fluorides and hydroxides, LiF is slightly soluble whereas CsF is very soluble, and Mg(OH) 2 is insoluble whereas Ba(OH) 2 is very soluble. Anion-cation size mismatch occurs with larger cations, such as Cs + and Ba 2 +, which make soluble fluoride salts.įor small anions, E L is more sensitive to r +, whereas E H does not depend on r + as strongly. Right: In the case of small anions such as F - and OH -, the lattice energy dominates with small cations such as transition metal ions (TM n +), Mg 2 +, and Li +. With larger cations such as Ba 2 +, which have lower E H, the lattice energy exceeds the solvation enthalpy and the salts are insoluble. The large SO 4 2 - ion is size-mismatched to small cations such as Mg 2 +, which have large hydration energies, resulting soluble salts. On the other hand, E H changes substantially with r +, especially for small cations.Īs a result, sulfate salts of small divalent cations, such as MgSO 4 (epsom salts), are soluble, whereas the lower hydration energy of Ba 2 + in BaSO 4 makes that salt insoluble (K sp = 10 -10). That is because the anion dominates the r + + r - term in the denominator of the formula for E L.
\]įor salts that contain large anions, E L doesn't change much as r + changes.