The coordination number of ions in ionic solids is decided by the

Options

A. magnitude of charge on the ions
B. number of electrons in the ions
C. ionic radii of ions
D. electronic configurations of ions

Answer

C

Explanation

The radius of an ion and of its oppositely charged ion-the number of its nearest neighbors of opposite charge. Where the difference in the size of the ions is greater, the coordination number is smaller. In ZnS, the great difference in size between the `Zn^(2+)` cation and the `S^(2-)` anion leads to the CN of 4. When the anion and cation are nearly of the same size in `CsCl`, the CN is 8.