Paramagnetism in Diatomic Molecules

- Diatomic molecules are molecules composed of only two atoms of the same or different chemical elements.
- Some diatomic molecules exhibit paramagnetism, which is a type of magnetism that arises from the presence of unpaired electrons in the molecule.
- A molecule is said to be paramagnetic if it has one or more unpaired electrons, which can be influenced by an external magnetic field.

Paramagnetic Diatomic Molecules of Element with Atomic Number 16

- The element with atomic number 16 is sulfur (S).
- The diatomic molecule of sulfur is S2, which contains two sulfur atoms joined by a covalent bond.
- To determine the number of unpaired electrons in S2, we need to first write the electron configuration of a sulfur atom.
- The electron configuration of a sulfur atom is 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p4, which means it has six valence electrons in the 3s and 3p orbitals.
- When two sulfur atoms combine to form S2, they share two electrons to form a covalent bond. This leaves each sulfur atom with four valence electrons.
- The four valence electrons of each sulfur atom are distributed in the 3s and 3p orbitals according to Hund's rule, which states that electrons occupy separate orbitals of the same energy level before pairing up.
- In S2, each sulfur atom has three unpaired electrons in the 3p orbitals, which gives a total of six unpaired electrons for the molecule.
- Therefore, the number of unpaired electrons in a paramagnetic diatomic molecule of sulfur (atomic number 16) is 2 (since each sulfur atom has 3 unpaired electrons, but they pair up to form the molecule).