Electronegativity

Electronegativity refers to the ability of an atom to attract the electrons of another atom to it when those two atoms are associated through a bond. Electronegativity is based on an atom's ionization energy and electron affinity. For that reason, electronegativity follows similar trends as its two constituent measures. Electronegativity generally increases moving across a period and decreases moving down a group. Flourine (F), in group VIIa and period 2, is the most powerfully electronegative of the elements. Electronegativity plays a very large role in the processes of Chemical Bonding. Electron Affinity An atom's electron affinity is the energy change in an atom when that atom gains an electron. The sign of the electron affinity can be confusing. When an atom gains an electron and becomes more stable, its potential energy decreases: upon gaining an electron the atom gives off energy and the electron affinity is negative. When an atom becomes less stable upon gaining an electron, its potential energy increases, which implies that the atom gains energy as it acquires the electron. In such a case, the atom's electron affinity is positive. An atom with a negative electron affinity is far more likely to gain electrons.

Ionization Energy and Electron Affinity

The process of gaining or losing an electron requires energy. There are two common ways to measure this energy change: ionization energy and electron affinity. Ionization Energy The ionization energy is the energy it takes to fully remove an electron from the atom. When several electrons are removed from an atom, the energy that it takes to remove the first electron is called the first ionization energy, the energy it takes to remove the second electron is the second ionization energy, and so on. In general, the second ionization energy is greater than first ionization energy. This is because the first electron removed feels the effect of shielding by the second electron and is therefore less strongly attracted to the nucleus. If a particular ionization energy follows a previous electron loss that emptied a subshell, the next ionization energy will take a rather large leap, rather than follow its normal gently increasing trend. This fact helps to show that just as electrons are more stable when they have a full valence shell, they are also relatively more stable when they at least have a full subshell.

Atomic Size (Atomic Radius)

The atomic size of an atom, also called the atomic radius, refers to the distance between an atom's nucleus and its valence electrons. Remember, the closer an electron

is to the nucleus, the lower its energy and the more tightly it is held. PERIODIC TABLE TRENDS If you were to look carefully at many of the properties of the elements, you would notice something besides the similarity of the properties within the groups. You would notice that many of these properties change in a fairly regular fashion that is dependent on the position of the element in the periodic table. As you compare elements from left to right across the periodic table, you will notice a trend or regular change in a number of properties. The same thing happens if you go up and down on the periodic table and compare the properties of the elements. ATOMIC SIZE The first of these properties is the atomic size. You know that each atom has a nucleus inside and electrons zooming around outside the nucleus. It should seem reasonable that the size of an atom depends on how far away its outermost (valence) electrons are from the nucleus. If they are very close to the nucleus, the atom will be very small. If they are far away, the atom will be quite a bit larger. So the atomic size is determined by how much space the electrons take up. IONIZATION ENERGY Now on to another property. It's called ionization energy. It can be defined as being

the energy required to remove the outermost electron from a gaseous atom. A "gaseous atom" means an atom that is all by itself, not hooked up to others in a solid or a liquid. When enough energy is added to an atom the outermost electron can use that energy to pull away from the nucleus completely (or be pulled, if you want to put it that way), leaving behind a positively charged ion. That is why it's called ionization, one of the things formed in the process is an ion. The ionization energy is the exact quantity of energy that it takes to remove the outermost electron from the atom. In your lab work on atomic spectra you observed that a gas would conduct electricity and emit light when it was subjected to a high voltage. When there is little or no voltage applied to the gas in the tubes, no light is emitted and the gas does not conduct electricity. One method for measuring the ionization energy of a gas is to slowly increase the voltage applied to it until it does conduct electricity and emit light. The voltage at which that occurs can be used to calculate the ionization energy. If the ionization energy is high, that means it takes a lot of energy to remove the outermost electron. If the ionization energy is low, that means it takes only a small amount of energy to remove the outermost electron. Lets use your understanding of atomic

structure to make some predictions. Think for a minute about how ionization energy would be affected by three of the factors we were talking about earlier: (1) nuclear charge, (2) number of energy levels, and (3) shielding. As the nuclear charge increases, the attraction between the nucleus and the electrons increases and it requires more energy to remove the outermost electron and that means there is a higher ionization energy. As you go across the periodic table, nuclear charge is the most important consideration. So, going across the periodic table, there should be an increase in ionization energy because of the increasing nuclear charge. Going down the table, the effect of increased nuclear charge is balanced by the effect of increased shielding, and the number of energy levels becomes the predominant factor. With more energy levels, the outermost electrons (the valence electrons) are further from the nucleus and are not so strongly attracted to the nucleus. Thus the ionization energy of the elements decreases as you go down the periodic table because it is easier to remove the electrons. Another way of looking at that is that if you are trying to take something from the first energy level, you have to take it past the second, the third, the fourth and so on, on the way out. But if something is already in the third or fourth energy level, it doesn't

have to be taken as far to get away from the nucleus. It is already part way removed from the nucleus. ELECTRON AFFINITY The electron affinity is a very specific measure of the tendency for atoms to gain electrons. Specifically, it is the amount of energy released by an electron when the electron joins or attaches to an isolated atom. This measurement is very sensitive to the difference between the types of orbitals and to the number of electrons in those orbitals. Consequently, the zigs and zags in a graph of electron affinity are even more pronounced than in the graph of ionization energy. Therefore we won't deal with the electron affinity trends - they get kind of lost in the fluctuations. You should remember what electron affinity is but don't worry about how it varies as you go across and up and down the periodic table. Ionization energy: the amount of energy it takes to strip away the first valence electron Electronegativity: a measure of how tightly an atom holds onto its valence electrons Nuclear charge: the attractive force between the positive protons in the nucleus and the negative electrons in the energy levels. The more protons, the greater the nuclear charge. Shielding: inner electrons tend to shield the outer electrons from the attractive force of the nucleus. The more energy levels

between the valence electrons and the nucleus, the more shielding. Periodic Trends There are several important atomic characteristics that show predictable trends that you should know. The first and most important is atomic radius. Radius is the distance from the center of the nucleus to the edge of the electron cloud. Atomic Radius Since a clouds edge is difficult to define, scientists use define covalent radius, or half the distance between the nuclei of 2 bonded atoms. Atomic radii are usually measured in picometers (pm) or angstroms (). An angstrom is 1 x 10-10 m. Atomic Radius The trend for atomic radius in a vertical column is to go from smaller at the top to larger at the bottom of the family. With each step down the family, we add an entirely new PEL to the electron cloud, making the atoms larger with each step. Atomic Radius The trend across a horizontal period is less obvious. What happens to atomic structure as we step from left to right? Each step adds a proton and an electron (and 1 or 2 neutrons).

Electrons are added to existing PELs or sublevels. Atomic Radius

The effect is that the more positive nucleus has a greater pull on the electron cloud. The nucleus is more positive and the electron cloud is more negative. The increased attraction pulls the cloud in, making atoms smaller as we move from left to right across a period. Atomic Radius

The overall trend in atomic radius looks like this. Shielding As more PELs are added to atoms, the inner layers of electrons shield the outer electrons from the nucleus.

The effective nuclear charge (enc) on those outer electrons is less, and so the outer electrons are less tightly held. Ionization Energy

This is the second important periodic trend. If an electron is given enough energy (in the form of a photon) to overcome the effective nuclear charge holding the electron in the cloud, it can leave the atom completely.

The atom has been ionized or charged. The number of protons and electrons is no longer equal. Ionization Energy

The energy required to remove an electron from an atom is ionization energy. (measured in kilojoules, kJ)

The larger the atom is, the easier its electrons are to remove. Ionization energy and atomic radius are inversely proportional. Ionization energy is always endothermic, that is energy is added to the atom to remove the electron. Electron Affinity

What does the word affinity mean? Electron affinity is the energy change that occurs when an atom gains an electron (also measured in kJ).

Where ionization energy is always endothermic, electron affinity is usually exothermic, but not always. Electron Affinity

Electron affinity is exothermic if there is an empty or partially empty orbital for an electron to occupy.

If there are no empty spaces, a new orbital or PEL must be created, making the process endothermic.

This is true for the alkaline earth metals and the noble gases. Electronegativity

Electronegativity is a measure of an atoms attraction for another atoms electrons. It is an arbitrary scale that ranges from 0 to 4. The units of electronegativity are Paulings. Generally, metals are electron givers and have low electronegativities. Nonmetals are are electron takers and have high electronegativities.