Rank the following salts in order of increasing lattice energy: lithium chloride, calcium oxide, aluminum oxide, sodium chloride, barium oxide. Please explain! Thank you.

 barium oxide < calcium oxide<  sodium chloride <   lithium chloride < aluminum oxide

Explanation:

The lattice energy can be defined as the change in internal energy accompanying the formation of a single mole of an ionic solid from its gaseous constituents at 0 K.

The lattice energy depends on the relative sizes of cations and anions in the compound. The smaller the cations and anions, the greater the lattice energy.

If we look as the proposed order of increasing lattice energy of the compounds;  barium oxide < calcium oxide<  sodium chloride <   lithium chloride < aluminum oxide, we will notice that it follows the order of decrease in the sizes of both the ions, Ba^2+ > Ca^2+ > Na+ >Li+ > Al^3+.

The smaller the ions involved, the greater the lattice energy as one can see from the order listed above.

huh im confused

Explanation: