Niobium (Nb)
Niobium is the 41st element, a transition metal in the d-block. Its standard atomic weight is 92.906.
Niobium
92.906
What the table records
- Atomic number
- 41
- Standard atomic weight
- 92.906
- Group
- 5
- Period
- 5
- Block
- d-block
- Category
- Transition metal
- [Kr] 4d4 5s1
- Valence electrons
- 5
- Typical valence
- Van der Waals radius
- 2.15 Å
- Covalent radius
- 1.64 Å
Molecules containing niobium
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.