What is the difference between paired and unpaired electrons

This bond forms a full pair of electrons that is shared between the two atoms, effectively giving each atom a stable shell of 8 electrons.

Lewis structures, also called Lewis-dot diagrams, Electron-dot diagrams or Electron-dot structures, are diagrams that show the bonding between atoms of a molecule, and the lone pairs of electrons that may exist in the molecule.

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We have seen atoms and bonds earlier, the bonds being atoms sharing electrons. Atoms, however, can also have electrons in the valence shell not involved in bond: free electon lone pairs, and unpaired electrons as found in radicals.

But before we look at how we add paired and unpaired electrons, we should first look at the two principle classes involved in representing these concepts. Like bonds, a free electron pair and a unpaired electron are bound to the atom. Depending on the theory used, the exact environment which holds the electrons can be named differently. Then we can name the chemical elements having all their electrons paired as diamagnetic chemical elements; diamagnetism means it does not attract to a magnetic field.

Unpaired electrons are the electrons in an atom that occur in an orbital alone. This means these electrons are not paired or occur as electron couples. We can easily determine if there are unpaired electrons in an atom by simply writing its electron configuration.

The atoms having these electrons show paramagnetic properties or ferromagnetic properties. Paramagnetic materials have few unpaired electrons while ferromagnetic materials have more unpaired electrons; thus, ferromagnetic materials attract to a magnetic field at a higher degree than that of a paramagnetic material. When an atom or a molecule has this type of electron, we call it a free radical.

The chemical elements having these electrons are highly reactive. This is because they tend to pair all their electrons in order to become stable; having an unpaired electron is unstable. Paired electrons are the electrons in an atom that occur in an orbital as pairs whereas unpaired electrons are the electrons in an atom that occur in an orbital alone. Therefore, paired electrons always occur as a couple of electrons while unpaired electrons occur as single electrons in the orbital.

This is the fundamental difference between paired and unpaired electrons. Moreover, the paired electrons cause diamagnetism of atoms whereas the unpaired electrons cause paramagnetism or ferromagnetism in atoms. We can say this as the key difference between paired and unpaired electrons. Electrons occur in atomic orbitals.