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A quest for the universal atomic radii

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Abstract

Atomic radius is an important periodic descriptor used in understanding a variety of physico-chemical and bio-chemical processes. Numerous scales are suggested to define atomic radii. The aim of the current study is to find out the most reliable and universal scale among different (experimental and theoretical) scales of radii. For this, we have used different types of radii to compute some size-dependent physico-chemical atomic descriptors, i.e. electronegativity, global hardness, polarizability, and a real-world molecular descriptor, i.e. internuclear bond distance for some diatomic molecules. The computed properties are compared with available experimental values. Important periodic trends and the presence of relativistic effects are also verified for each set of atomic radii. This comparative study is valuable to get an idea about the most effective atomic radii.

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All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article and its supplementary information file.

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Acknowledgements

Dr. Tanmoy Chakraborty is thankful to Sharda University, and Dr. Hiteshi Tandon and Ms. PoonamYadav are thankful to Manipal University Jaipur for providing a research facility.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Manipal University Jaipur, Jaipur, 300307, Rajasthan, India

    Poonam Yadav, Hiteshi Tandon & Babita Malik

  2. DIT University, Dehradun, 248009, Uttarakhand, India

    Vandana Suhag

  3. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, School of Basic Sciences and Research, Sharda University, 201310, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Tanmoy Chakraborty

Authors
  1. Poonam Yadav
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  2. Hiteshi Tandon
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  3. Babita Malik
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  4. Vandana Suhag
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  5. Tanmoy Chakraborty
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Contributions

Conceptualization: Tanmoy Chakraborty; data curation: Hiteshi Tandon; methodology: Tanmoy Chakraborty; formal analysis: Poonam Yadav; investigation: Poonam Yadav; visualization: Hiteshi Tandon, Poonam Yadav; writing — original draft: Poonam Yadav; writing — review and editing: Hiteshi Tandon, Tanmoy Chakraborty; resources: Hiteshi Tandon; supervision: Tanmoy Chakraborty, Babita Malik, Vandana Suhag.

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Correspondence to Hiteshi Tandon or Tanmoy Chakraborty.

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Yadav, P., Tandon, H., Malik, B. et al. A quest for the universal atomic radii. Struct Chem 33, 389–394 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11224-021-01850-7

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