What ion will calcium form after a chemical reaction?

Answer 1

We find the alkaline earth metal calcium in Group 2 of the Periodic Table. It "lives" there because it has two valence electrons. The nature of calcium is that it would really like to loan out those two electrons in an attempt to emulate the electron configuration of an inert or noble gas. Because it wants to loan out those two electrons, it has a "desire" to participate in chemical reactions.

To cite a single example of what calcium wants to do, let's combine it with chlorine in a chemical reaction. We know that chlorine is one electron short of a full valence shell, so this element wants to borrow an electron if it can. As calcium wants to loan out two electrons and chlorine wants to borrow one, they will react. Calcium and chlorine form calcium chloride. But there is bit more to the story.

An atom of calcium has two valence electrons to loan out, while chlorine wants to borrow only one. That means that twochlorine atoms will react with one calcium atom to make calcium chloride. Here's the reaction:

Ca + 2Cl => CaCl2

We've written the balanced chemical equation for the reaction of calcium with chlorine. Note that the 2 in front of the Cl on the left side of the equation appears as a subscript with the Cl on the right hand side of the equation. Our equation is correct.

It could be argued that chlorine appears as Cl2 in its elemental state. (This is dichlorine, a diatomic molecule.) In that case, we'd have to adjust our equation to balance it, and it would appear like this:

2Ca + 2Cl2 => 2CaCl2

Answer 2

Ca++ also called Ca+2