MgHe

[GreyDergal]

Hello, it was recently that I had thought of the following process:

 

U-238 goes through Alpha decay

Products Th-234 and He-4 are produced

He-4 has no electrons being newly emmited

The He-4 inside of a vacuum goes towards a sample of Mg-24

Mg-24 gives 2 e- to the He-4

He-4 and Mg-24 both obtain full octets.

 

Now would the Mg-24 and He-4 form a bond forming a compound or would somthing else happen

 

EDIT:sorry i posted in wrong section, but if anyone can still help i apreciate it.

Edited February 11, 2011 by GreyDergal

[Horza2002]

Ok so techincally the anwser is yes and no.

 

In the situation you outlined, no bond will form because the magnesium would simply transfer its electrons to the He ion to give a helium atom and a Mg2+ ion.

 

It is theorecially possible that the Helium could form a dative bond to the Mg2+ ion but this would be incrediable weak

[mississippichem]

Helium has been known to form Van der Waals complexes with "soft" metal centers* (usually highly polarizable [math] p^2[/math] or [math]p^4[/math] centers). However magnesium has a very tight full s orbital and has no energetic need for a dative interaction and not much polarizability for Van der Waals Complex formation.

 

*Some of these complexes are metastable at STP but many are only observed by far IR spectroscopy in a super cooled solid argon matrix, as just room temperature thermal energy is enough to cause cleavage of these super weak interactions. There is no heterolytic seperation of ions or homolytic spin "de-pairing" that needs to occur.

Edited February 11, 2011 by mississippichem