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Actinoid contraction

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The actinoid contraction or actinide contraction is the greater-than-expected decrease in atomic radii and ionic radii of the elements in the actinoid series, from left to right.

Description

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It is more pronounced than the lanthanoid contraction because the 5f electrons are less effective at shielding than 4f electrons.[1] It is caused by the poor shielding effect of nuclear charge by the 5f electrons along with the expected periodic trend of increasing electronegativity and nuclear charge on moving from left to right. About 40-50% of actinoid contraction has been attributed to relativistic effects.[2]

A decrease in atomic radii can be observed across the 5f elements from atomic number 89, actinium, to 102, nobelium. This results in smaller than otherwise expected atomic radii and ionic radii for the subsequent d-block elements starting with 103, lawrencium.[3][4][5][6] This effect causes the radii of transition metals of group 5 and 6 to become unusually similar, as the expected increase in radius going down a period is nearly cancelled out by the f-block insertion, and has many other far ranging consequences in post-actinoid elements.

The decrease in ionic radii (M3+) is much more uniform compared to decrease in atomic radii.

Element Atomic electron
configuration
(all begin with [Ra])
M3+ electron
configuration
M3+ radius (pm)
(6-coordinate)
Ac 6d17s2 5f0 111
Th 6d27s2 5f1
Pa 5f26d17s2 5f2
U 5f36d17s2 5f3 103
Np 5f46d17s2 5f4 101
Pu 5f67s2 5f5 100
Am 5f77s2 5f6 99
Cm 5f76d17s2 5f7 99
Bk 5f97s2 5f8 98
Cf 5f107s2 5f9 98
Es 5f117s2 5f10
Fm 5f127s2 5f11
Md 5f137s2 5f12
No 5f147s2 5f13
Lr 5f146d17s2 5f14

References

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  1. ^ Seth, Michael; Dolg, Michael; Fulde, Peter; Schwerdtfeger, Peter (June 1995). "Lanthanide and Actinide Contractions: Relativistic and Shell Structure Effects". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 117 (24): 6597–6598. doi:10.1021/ja00129a026. ISSN 0002-7863.
  2. ^ Laerdahl, J. K.; Fægri, K.; Visscher, L.; Saue, T. (1998-12-22). "A fully relativistic Dirac–Hartree–Fock and second-order Mo/ller–Plesset study of the lanthanide and actinide contraction". The Journal of Chemical Physics. 109 (24): 10806–10817. Bibcode:1998JChPh.10910806L. doi:10.1063/1.477686. ISSN 0021-9606.
  3. ^ Chistyakov, V. M. (1968). "Biron's Secondary Periodicity of the Side d-subgroups of Mendeleev's Short Table". Journal of General Chemistry of the USSR. 38 (2): 213–214. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
  4. ^ Housecroft, C. E.; Sharpe, A. G. (2004). Inorganic Chemistry (2nd ed.). Prentice Hall. pp. 536, 649, 743. ISBN 978-0-13-039913-7.
  5. ^ Cotton, F. Albert; Wilkinson, Geoffrey (1988), Advanced Inorganic Chemistry (5th ed.), New York: Wiley-Interscience, pp. 776, 955, ISBN 0-471-84997-9
  6. ^ Jolly, William L. Modern Inorganic Chemistry, McGraw-Hill 1984, p. 22