Chemical Properties
The valence electron configuration of Yb+3 (from YbCl3) is 4f135s25p6, which has crucial implications in chemical behavior of Yb+3. Also, the size of Yb+3 governs its catalytic behavior and biological applications. For example, while both Ce+3 and Yb+3 have a single unpaired f electron, Ce+3 is much larger than Yb+3 because lanthanides become much smaller with increasing effective nuclear charge since f electrons are not well shielded, compared to d electrons. This behavior is known as the lanthanide contraction. The small size of Yb+3 produces fast catalytic behavior and an atomic radius (0.99 Å) comparable to many important biological ions.
The thermodynamic properties tabulated herein were difficult to obtain since many of the measurements were made in the gas phase where YbCl3 can exist as (−3) or Yb2Cl6. The Yb2Cl6 species was detected by electron impact (EI) mass spectrometry as (Yb2Cl5+). Additional complications in obtaining experimental data arise from the myriad of low-lying f-d and f-f electronic transitions. Despite these issues, the thermodynamic properties of YbCl3 have been obtained and the C3V symmetry group has been assigned based upon the four active infrared vibrations.
Read more about this topic: Ytterbium(III) Chloride
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