The Application of Coulombs Law to Cation Exchange Selectivity:

Coulombs law is an equation describing the electric force between two charged
objects.
Its original form is given as follows:

where F is the force one object exerts on the other, k = 1/4o is a constant equal to 9
x 10^9, each q is the electric charge of one of the two objects, and r is the distance
between the two objects.
But, for comparing the force of two cations, we can calculate the distance by each
cationic radius:

For chemistry, we only use a modified form of Coulombs law, derived through basic
physics and calculus. This formula is:
E=k

1.2

where E is the lattice energy between the two objects, and k, q, and r have the same
meaning as in the original formula.
The most important application of Coulombs law is the energy between an atom with
a positive charge and an atom with a negative charge. A negative energy means that
the particles attract each other. A positive energy indicates that the particles repel
each other. As the atoms get closer, the energy between them grows greater as the
force attracting the particles to each other also increases.
The equation suggests that two ions of the same charge will move as far away from
each other as physically possible. The equation also would suggest that two
oppositely charged ions should be as close together as physically possible to achieve
the smallest amount of energy (as nature tends to follow the path of least
resistance). However, at extremely short separations, two ions actually experience

repulsive forces due to the strong positive charges of the ions nuclei and nuclear
forces are much stronger than electric forces, but only on very small scales.

The depth of the minimum in the potential energy curve above represents the bond
strength, and the distance at the energy minimum is the bond length. Using
Coulomb's law and the bond length, one can predict the strength of an ionic
bond. Based on Coulombs law, we note that ionic compounds formed by ions with
larger charges create stronger bonds and ionic compounds with shorter bond lengths
form stronger bonds.

Heres a worked example problem:

1. Find the energy of interaction between the pair of ions in NaCl using
Coulombs Law given that the distance between the two ions is 0.25 nm.
Step one: Write out Coulombs Law
E = k(Q1Q2)/r

* E is the energy of interaction between a pair of ions and has units of joules
* k is a constant that equals 2.31 x 10-19J nm
* Q1 and Q2 are the numerical ion charges
* r is the distance between the ion centers in nanometers.
Step two: Plug in the given radius and corresponding charges to solve for E
E = 2.31 x 10-19J nm(+1)(-1)/0.25nm
E = -9.24 x 10-19 joules

2. In ion exchange experiment, we want to know, which has the stronger force
with the ion in resins between Ca2+ and Zn2+?
Given data: q for protons (+1) = 1,6 x 10-19
q for electrons (-1) = - 1,6 x 10-19
Ionic radius for Ca = 0,99
Ionic radius for Zn = 0,74
Answer:
Step one: Write out Coulombs Law

N.m2 / C2

Step three: Plug in the given radius and corresponding charges to solve for FZn2+
Ionic radius for Zn = 0,74 = 0,74 x 10-10 m

Conclusion:

FZn2+
>
FCa2+
-8
-8,415 x 10 N > -4,702 x 10-8 N

Thus, the force of Zn is stronger than the force of Ca to bond with the anions in resin

And here are two more problems for you to try yourself:
1. Given that the atomic radius of Na (plus) is .095 nm and Cl- is .181 nm, find the ionic
energy of a single NaCl molecule.
2. Two ions of with charges +1 and -1 are separated by a distance of 1.0 angstroms. By
what factor is the potential energy increased when those ions are moved to 8.0 angstroms
away?

The answers to these problems are at the bottom of the page.

Answers:
1.
Use Coulomb's law equation, then plug in values given, i.e. radius and known
charges:
2.31x10^-19 J x nm ((-1)(+1)/(.095 + .181)nm= -8.37 x 10^-19 J

2.
Coulomb's law dictates that the energy should increase by 8 times. Since
opposite charges attract, increasing the separation between the charges will increase
the energy. Because the distance is increased by a factor of 8, the energy must
therefore increase by a factor of 8.