Question

What do you mean by valency?

Answer 1

Valency:

• “Valency is the combining capacity of an atom.”
• “The electrons present in the outermost shell of an atom are known as the valence electrons.”

Example:

• Consider the Lithium $\left(\mathrm{Li}\right)$ atom having an atomic number $3$.
• The electronic configuration of Lithium is$1s^{2}2s^1$.
• The number of valence electrons in lithium is $1$. Thus, it must lose one to attain stability. Therefore, the valency of Lithium is $1$.