Question

Actinoids exhibit greater range of oxidation states than lanthanoids.WHY ?

Answer 1

Actinides exhibits larger oxidation states than lanthanides, because of very small energy gap between 5f, 6d and 7s sub shells. Thus, the outermost electrons get easily excited to the higher energy levels, giving variable oxidation states.

Answer 2

Both lanthanide and actinides are the f-block elements which are placed at the bottom of main periodic table. There are type of two series; each with 14 elements at the bottom of periodic table.

This is because, “they show quite different physical properties and chemical properties compare to other elements”. Here actinides exhibits greater range of oxidation states than lanthanidesbecause there is a small energy gap between ‘5f, 6d and 7s’ sub shells.

Therefore electron can easily jump between these energy levels to show variable oxidation states.