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Arsenic (As)

Arsenic is the 33rd element, a metalloid in the p-block. Its standard atomic weight is 74.922.

Period 4Group 15p-blockMetalloid
33As

Arsenic

74.922

What the table records

Atomic number
33
Standard atomic weight
74.922
Group
15
Period
4
Block
p-block
Category
Metalloid
Electron configuration
[Ar] 3d10 4s2 4p3
Valence electrons
5
Typical valence
3
Van der Waals radius
2.05 Å
Covalent radius
1.19 Å

The configuration above is the aufbau order.

Molecules containing arsenic

How to read these numbers

The standard atomic weight is an average over the isotopes as they occur naturally, which is why it is rarely a whole number. It is the figure a molar mass calculation uses. Work in mass spectrometry wants the monoisotopic mass of a single isotope instead, which is a different number.

The two radii are not the same measurement. The covalent radius is half the distance between two bonded atoms of the element; the van der Waals radius is how close a non-bonded atom gets before repulsion takes over, and is always the larger. Space-filling models are drawn with the second, ball-and-stick models with the first — which is why the same molecule looks so different in the two.