Question

Question: Lithium is chemically reactive. What if electrons were spin $\frac{\mathbf{3}}{\mathbf{2}}$instead of spin$\frac{1}{2}$. What value of Z would result in an elements reactive in roughly the same way as lithium? What if electrons were instead spin-1?

Short answer

Answer

The value of Z = 5

Step-by-step solution

Introduction.

If electrons had spin $\mathit{S}\mathbf{=}\frac{\mathbf{3}}{\mathbf{2}}$ instead of two possible orientations of the spin measured along a Z-axis, there would be 2s+1 = 4 possible spin orientations, and therefore 4 electrons per in for each orbital. Real lithium with actual spin$\frac{\mathbf{1}}{\mathbf{2}}$ electrons has its filled 2s shell and 1 electron in its 2p shell. The hypothetical atom with spin- 4 electrons would need to have 4 electrons to fill its shell 1s plus the one in its outermost shell, for a total of 5 electrons, to have similar reactivity to real lithium.

Value of z.

It would have z = 5.

If the electron had spin 1 it would be a Boson and would not be subject to the exclusion principle. All the electrons of the atom would fall into the . It would not be possible for any such atom, for any atomic number, to have a reactivity similar to lithium.

The value of z would be 5.