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Q.Which is more stable Fe3+Fe^{3+} or Fe2+Fe^{2+} ? Why ?

Tamil Nadu DgeTamil Nadu HSC (DGE) Board 2024Subjective· 3mImportance★★★★★
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Fe3+Fe^{3+} has the electron configuration 3d53d^5, an exactly half-filled subshell, which is more stable than Fe2+Fe^{2+}'s 3d63d^6 configuration due to greater exchange energy and symmetric orbital occupation.

Iron's atomic configuration is [Ar]3d64s2[Ar]3d^64s^2. Removing the two 4s4s electrons gives Fe2+Fe^{2+}: [Ar]3d6[Ar]3d^6 (one 3d orbital doubly occupied, four singly occupied). Removing one further electron, from a 3d3d orbital, gives Fe3+Fe^{3+}: [Ar]3d5[Ar]3d^5 — all five 3d orbitals singly occupied, i.e. exactly half-filled. A half-filled (or fully-filled) subshell has extra stability for two related reasons: (i) the electrons are distributed as symmetrically as possible across the degenerate orbitals, which minimises electron-electron repulsion, and (ii) this arrangement maximises the number of possible same-spin electron exchanges, which lowers the total energy through exchange stabilisation. Because 3d53d^5 is exactly hal …

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