What do they mean by central metal, charge on metal ion and Abbreviated electron configuration for the electron ion? And I'm looking at CoCl2·6H20.
The central metal is Co. It gets that name from the fact that the Co atom is in the middle of the "structure" with Cl and H2O molecules posted around it. Here is a site that show a little of what I'm talking about. Scroll about half way down the page to see it on the left hand side.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobalt%28II%29_chloride
The charge on the metal ion is +2. I THINK the abb electron structure is Co: but I've not seen that term before.
In the compound CoCl2·6H2O, "Co" represents the chemical symbol for the central metal, which in this case is cobalt. The central metal refers to the metal atom that forms the core or central part of a coordination complex or compound.
The "charge on metal ion" refers to the net electric charge carried by the central metal ion in a compound or complex. It indicates the number of electrons gained or lost by the metal ion to achieve a stable electronic configuration. In the case of CoCl2·6H2O, cobalt has a charge of +2, as indicated by the subscript "2" after "Co" in CoCl2. This means that cobalt has lost 2 electrons to have a +2 charge.
The "abbreviated electron configuration" represents the electron configuration of an atom or ion, where the inner electron shells are omitted, and the outermost shell is specified. In the case of the cobalt ion (Co2+), the electron configuration can be abbreviated from the neutral cobalt atom's full electron configuration: 1s² 2s² 2p⁶ 3s² 3p⁶ 4s² 3d⁷. Since cobalt loses 2 electrons to form Co2+, we remove the 4s² electrons from the configuration. Therefore, the abbreviated electron configuration for the Co2+ ion is [Ar] 3d⁷.
To summarize:
- Central metal: In CoCl2·6H2O, the central metal is cobalt (Co).
- Charge on metal ion: The cobalt ion (Co2+) has a charge of +2.
- Abbreviated electron configuration: The abbreviated electron configuration for Co2+ is [Ar] 3d⁷.