Given: Two statements are given about bond dissociation enthalpy of halogens and covalent character of metal halides.
Find: Which option correctly identifies the truth values of Statement I and Statement II.
Bond dissociation enthalpy in halogens depends on bond length and lone pair-lone pair repulsion. Covalent character in metal halides is explained using Fajan's rules.
Statement I: In general, bond strength decreases down the group as atomic size increases. However, F2 shows anomalously low bond enthalpy because the very small size of fluorine causes strong repulsion between lone pairs on adjacent atoms.
The experimental order is
Cl2(242.6)>Br2(192.8)>F2(158.8)>I2(151.1)kJ/mol
So Statement I is true.
Statement II: By Fajan's rules, a cation with higher charge and smaller size has greater polarizing power and forms a bond with more covalent character.
Therefore:
SnCl4>SnCl2
PbCl4>PbCl2
UF6>UF4
Hence the given trend is reversed, so Statement II is false.
Therefore, Statement I is true but Statement II is false. The correct option is C.