Given below are two statements.
Statement I: The chlorides of $\mathrm{Be}$ and $\mathrm{Al}$ have Cl-bridged structure. Both are soluble in organic solvents and act as Lewis bases.
Statement II: Hydroxides of $\mathrm{Be}$ and $\mathrm{Al}$ dissolve in excess alkali to give beryllate and aluminate ions.
In the light of the above statements, choose the correct answer from the options given below.
Solution
Chlorides of $\mathrm{Be}$ and $\mathrm{Al}$ are $\mathrm{BeCl}_{2}$ and $\mathrm{AlCl}_{3}$ and they have electron deficiency at central atom and behave as the Lewis acids.
<br/><br/>
$$
\begin{aligned}
& \mathrm{BeCl}_{2}+\mathrm{H}_{2} \mathrm{O} \rightarrow\left[\underset{\text { beryllate ion }}{\mathrm{Be}(\mathrm{OH})_{4}}\right]^{2-} \\\\
& \mathrm{AlCl}_{3}+\mathrm{H}_{2} \mathrm{O} \rightarrow\left[\underset{\text { aluminate ion }}{\mathrm{Al}(\mathrm{OH})_{4}}\right]^{-}
\end{aligned}
$$
About this question
Subject: Chemistry · Chapter: p-Block Elements · Topic: Group 13: Boron Family
This question is part of PrepWiser's free JEE Main question bank. 300 more solved questions on p-Block Elements are available — start with the harder ones if your accuracy is >70%.