How would you use electron configuration arguments to justify Bohr\'s prediction

Question

How would you use electron configuration arguments to justify Bohr's prediction?

The discovery of hafnium, element number 72, provided a controversial episode in chemistry. G. Urbain, a French chemist, claimed in 1911 to have isolated an element number 72 from a sample of rare earth (elements 58-71) compounds. However, Niels Bohr believed that hafnium was more likely to be found along with zirconium than with the rare earths. D. Coster and G. von Hevesy, working in Bohr's laboratory in Copenhagen, showed in 1922 that element 72 was present in a sample of Norwegian zircon, an ore of zirconium. (The name hafnium comes from the Latin name for Copenhagen, Hafnia)

Explanation / Answer

The electronic configuration for zirconium (Zr) and hafnium (Hf) can be written as,

Zr = [Kr]5s24d2

Hf = [Xe]6s24f145d2

While halfnium has additional electrons in the f-orbitals, its f subshell is filled. Hf has 2 electrons in the d-orbitals

like zirconium, and these electrons determine the overall properties of Hf, making it chemically similar to Zr.

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