Ionization Energy

Practice Question Solving
1

I read something about ionization energy that confused me. Could someone explain what this bold part in the text below is saying? Is it saying that another atom of the same substance attracted to its own ions? Wouldn’t it just be that the loss of an electron allows the positive nucleus to pull in the valence electrons and therefore it is more difficult to displace an electron? Thank you in advance! :smiling_face:

“When considering an initially neutral atom, expelling the first electron will require less energy than expelling the second, the second will require less energy than the third, and so on. Each successive electron requires more energy to be released. This is because after the first electron is lost, the overall charge of the atom becomes positive, and the negative forces of the electron will be attracted to the positive charge of the newly formed ion. The more electrons that are lost, the more positive this ion will be, the harder it is to separate the electrons from the atom.”

2

Yes! As you remove electrons you get closer to the centre of the nucleus, and the newly formed ion is more positive than negative as there will be more protons than electrons so that positive force will pull in the electrons making it much harder to remove another electron from the shell as it requires more energy. In the bold line it’s just says the electrons are negative and attracted by the positive nucleus more since there’s a more positive charge because there are more protons than electrons. The more valence shells, the more distance it has between the centre and the valence shell therefore the force is smaller.

4 Likes
3

Thank you so much!!!

4

Haha sure! Sorry if my explanation is all over the place I just typed whatever came to my head that helped me understand the concept!