Chapter 11, Problem 11STP

Interpretation Introduction

Interpretation:

The general trend in ionization energy should be summarized and the relation of ionization energy with valence electrons in an element should be discussed.

Concept introduction:

Ionization energy is the amount of energy required in order to remove the valence electron from an isolated neutral gaseous atom.

Explanation of Solution

Given:

The given data is entered in excel spreadsheet and the following plot is obtained where x -axis represents atomic number and y -axis represents first ionization energy in kJ/mol as:

The given elements are present in period 3 of the periodic table and the trend in plot shows an increase in first ionization energy on moving from left to right in the period.

From the given data, the element that has lowest first ionization energy is sodium that means an atom possess low ionization energy when it is easy to remove an electron from it thus, it will form positive ion easily whereas the element that has highest ionization energy is argon that means an atom possess high ionization energy when it is harder to remove an electron from it thus, it will not form positive ion easily. As the number of valence electrons increases from sodium to argon (1 to 8) so, the ionization energy is greater for the atoms having more valence electrons.