Question

why metals lose electrons more easily than nonmetals ?

Answer 1

Metals: Metals like to lose valence electronsto form cations to have a fully stable octet. They absorb energy (endothermic) to lose electrons. The electron affinity of metals is lower than that of nonmetals. Nonmetals: Nonmetals like to gain electrons to form anions to have a fully stable octet.

Answer 2

According to the octet configuration, an atom has to have 8 electrons in their valence shell in order to attain stability (except in case of helium which is stable with 2 valence electrons as its valence shell cannot have more than 2 electrons)

In case of metals, the number of valence electrons is usually 1 , 2 or 3 . Thus if it can lose these electrons then it will attain stability as the previous shell will already have 8 electrons.

However, in case of non metals, it usually has 5 , 6 or 7 electrons. In this case it would want to take up electrons to attain stability rather than giving up these electrons as it would require more energy.

Thus metals tend to lose electrons whereas non metals tend to accept electrons.