Why does chlorine have the highest electron affinity?
Answers
Why Does Chlorine Have the Highest Electron Affinity?
Written by Ankit Kumar Sathua
Some atoms and molecules love to gobble up electrons. Chemists and physicists call this tendency electron affinity. The electron affinity of an atom or molecule is numerically characterized by the amount of energy released when an electron is added to it.
Electron Affinity Trends
Atoms and molecules have certain qualities, one of which is electron affinity. As a rule of thumb, when you are looking at the periodic table, you can expect electron affinity to increase as you move from left to right across the periodic table -- excluding the noble gases -- and to decrease when you move down a group. Therefore, elements with the highest electron affinity in the top right corner of the periodic table. Chlorine, however, breaks this rule.
Atomic Orbitals
Electrons inhabit regions of space in atoms known as orbitals. Each orbital can only hold two electrons and is named to indicate its shape and energy level. The energy levels range from 1 to 7, and the shapes of the orbitals are labelled by "s," "p," "d" and "f." For example, the orbital that the hydrogen electron occupies is the 1s orbital -- "1" refers to the orbital being in the energy level closest to the nucleus, and "s" refers to the symmetrical and spherical shape of the orbital.
Chlorine and Electron Affinity
As fluorine sits atop chlorine in the periodic table, most people expect it to have the highest electron affinity, but this is not the case. Fluorine is a small atom with a small amount of space available in its 2p orbital. Because of this, any new electron trying to attach to fluorine experiences lower electron affinity from the electrons already living in the element's 2p orbital. Since chlorine's outermost orbital is a 3p orbital, there is more space, and the electrons in this orbital are inclined to share this space with an extra electron. Therefore, chlorine has a higher electron affinity than fluorine, and this orbital structure causes it to have the highest electron affinity of all of the elements.
Answer:
the electron affinity. In this lesson, we will discuss electron affinity and its general trend in the periodic table.
What is Electron Affinity?
Imagine you're carrying a bag and adding things to it. Naturally, the bag becomes heavier, and there is a change in the energy you expend when the weight changes. In the same way, when an atom gains electrons, an energy change occurs. This energy change is what we call the electron affinity.
The electron affinity is defined as the energy change that occurs when an atom gains an electron, releasing energy in the process. Let's remember that an electron is negatively charged, so when an atom gains an electron, it becomes a negative ion.
An Atom Gaining an Electron
Since we are talking about a change in energy, when an electron is added to an atom, there is an equation used to determine the electron affinity:
Electron Affinity Equation
This equation shows that electron affinity is equal to the negative change in energy. Let's clarify the sign convention for the energy change associated with the gain of an electron. Remember that the definition of an electron affinity is the energy released, so that means that the reaction is exothermic. If a reaction is exothermic, the change in energy is negative. This means that the electron affinity is positive.
For example, the electron affinity of chlorine has the negative sign, which shows us the energy that is released to add one electron to an atom. The giving off of energy is shown with a negative sign.
Electron Affinity of Chlorine
Based on this sign convention, this means that a higher electron affinity indicates that an atom more easily accepts electrons. A lower electron affinity indicates that an atom does not accept electrons as easily.
Factors That Affect Electron Affinity
There are two factors that can affect electron affinity. These are atomic size and nuclear charge. With regard to atomic size, let's think about a magnet and a refrigerator. When a magnet is closer to the surface of the refrigerator, you can clearly feel the pull of the attraction between the magnet and the refrigerator. The farther the magnet gets away from the fridge, the less you feel the attraction or pull.
When looking at a drawing of a smaller atom side by side with a bigger atom, it can be seen that a smaller atom's outermost shell is closer to the nucleus than that of a bigger atom. Just like our magnet and refrigerator analogy, the electron will feel more attraction to the nucleus if it is closer.
Electron Affinity and Atomic Radius
The smaller the atom is, the closer the outermost shell is; therefore, it is a stronger attraction between the nucleus and the incoming electron. That means the electron affinity is higher for smaller atoms.
When looking at the periodic table the atomic radius increases from top to bottom, moving down a column; therefore, the electron affinity increases from the bottom to the top of the column.
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