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Chemistry · L4 · Lanthanide Contraction — Zr vs Hf Radii

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Why zirconium and hafnium, one period apart in group 4, end up with almost identical atomic radii instead of the increase a naive down-group trend would predict.

by @openstemUpdated Chemistry
Zr — period 5, group 4atomic radius ~160 pmLanthanides La-LuZ = 57-714f electrons fill, shield poorlyNaive down-group prediction(new shell only): ~175 pmHf — period 6, group 4actual atomic radius ~159 pmcontraction accumulates across 14 elementswithout lanthanides

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