How many unpaired electrons?

Question

How many unpaired electrons would you expect for the following complex ions?1. [MnF6]^4-2. [Ru(en)3]^2+I know that #1 is high spin and #2 is low spin, but somehow I still don’t get how many unpaired electrons there are. Please help!

Prof. Carmelo Hilpert · Accepted Answer

oxidation state of manganese here is +2 that is 3d^5 . flourides are poor ligands and can not force the outer electrons in Manganese to be paired up. Mn^2+ undergoes sp^3d^2 hybridisation to accommodate six ligand pairs. Hence the complex contains five unpaired electrons in the central atom. ethylene diamine (en) is a neutral ligand. Oxidation state of Ruthenium is +2 it contains six valence electrons . en is a strong ligand and can force the electrons to pair up. So the central atom undergoes d^2sp^3 hybridisation and contains no unpaired electrons.

Prof. Carmelo Hilpert · Answer

remember when they taught you about shells1s2s2s2s3s3p3dsomething like that?use that in order to draw the whole thing when you finish you will have some e- unpaired I believeremember ? like only one arrow up instead of one up one down?sorry I don’t know how to explain it any further but that is how I would do it

Dr. Reggie Bosco DVM

How many unpaired electrons?

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