Arrange the following oxides in order of increasing basic character: Al2O3, Cs2O, K2O, N2O5.

Video transcript

Hi, everyone. Welcome back. Our next problem says, arrange the oxides in increasing order from least basic to most basic. So we have in 203 teo two SRO and SB 205. And then we have four answer choices with them in different orders. So we need to think about oxides and what would make them more or less basic oxides? Of course, are those binary compounds where oxygen has an oxidation state of minus two, its most favorite oxidation state. And we can recall that oxygen is a very electron element. And so it's not going to give up electrons, it's really going to hang on to them or attract them from other elements. But it can oxides can exist as ionic oxides where the other element will completely give its electrons over to oxygen or they can exist as covalent oxides where the oxygen will share the electrons. Although again, the oxygen has that negative oxidation state, the electrons will be closer to the oxygen more attracted to the oxygen. Well, when you think about ionic oxides, you think about electrons completely being given over to oxygen, it makes sense that those would form when you have oxygen plus a metal because metals of course, are characterized by the ease with which they give up electrons and then covalent oxides form when you have oxygen with a non metal. So not nearly as likely to completely give up electrons but happy to share them. So how do we know which would be basic versus less basic? Well, the oxide ion is a very strong base, it's very likely to combine with hydrogen ions. So an ionic oxide would be more basic as you'll have more of that oxide ion and the covalent oxides would be less basic since you don't have the oxide in an ionic state. So if we want to look at what would make them go from least basic to most basic, it would be going more ionic in character. So that's what we're looking for. And moronic in character means the element it's bonded to is more metallic. So what are our periodic 10 trends with respect to the character of being metallic? When we think about our periodic table, if we remember that being metallic means being willing to give up electrons, of course, going from right to left will make something more metallic. Those group one and two ways are the metal, the very metallic atoms and then going down the periodic table will make them more metallic as the outer electrons get further and further away from the nucleus. So right to left, more metallic and going down more metallic and therefore more basic. So we need to look at our elements and think about where they are with respect to these periodic qualities. So our first element that forms an oxide is India. So DM is in group three a row five, then we have an oxide of tellurium tellurium is group six a row five. Then strontium, sr strontium is in group two a row five. And finally, SB which is antimony is in group five A row five. So this is pretty straightforward. They're all in the same row. So we don't have to worry about um going up or down in our periodic table just left to right least to most basic. So the farthest left element is going to be tellurium because that's group six A. So tellurium will be the farthest left. So we want our answer to have tellurium oxide first and the only one that does is choice B Toloi is first. So right away, we have our correct answer. If we're on a test, we would stop right there and move on because choice A has antimony first. Choice C has strontium first and choice D has indium first. But to be thorough, let's just look at the rest of these, make sure they're in the correct order. We put Tellurium farthest to the right, the next one as we move over is antimony SB in group five A. And indeed, we see that next in answer. Choice B as we keep moving to the left, we then have indium in group three A. And that is indeed next in choice B and finally Stron Jam way over in two A definitely metallic and the last one listed here. So once again, the oxides in increasing order from least basic to most basic choice Beeo two SB 205 in 203 and SRO see you in the next video.