What is the role of ionic size in identifying elements?
The size of elements once they’re ionized is a periodic trend. As you go down any group, the ions get larger because the nucleus is farther from the outer electrons, and isn’t able to pull in those outer electrons. Those outer electrons are called “shielded”. As you go across any period, the size of the ion decreases, because the number of protons (think positive charges) continues to increase by one, and each extra postive charge pulls the cloud of electrons (think negative charges) in tighter. This is referred to as an increased nuclear charge. Since these trends are very obvious, you could identify an element based on it’s ion size if you knew the neighboring ion’s sizes.
