A quest for the universal atomic radii

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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Data availability

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.

Author information

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
  1. Poonam Yadav