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Ionization
Ionization
happens when an electron is stripped off of a particle. If enough energy is available all the electrons on an atom can be removed. The first electron removed requires the least energy. Progressively more energy is needed as the positive change on the ionized particle goes up and as the electron being removed comes from an orbital cloer to the nucleus of the atom.
The
ionization energy is the amount of energy needed to strip an electron
off of an atom, ion, or molecule.
The illustration shows that the metals
like lithium, Li, and cesium, Cs, have relatively low ionization energies.
This means it takes relatively small amounts of energy to remove electrons
from these atoms. These atoms have large diameters. The outer electrons are relatively far from the nucleus. Metals tend to lose electrons and form positive ions.
The
nonmetals like neon, Ne, fluorine, F, and oxygen, O, have relatively
high ionization energies. This indicates that the nonmetals have strong
attractions for their valence electrons. The nonmetals hold on to their
electrons. In fact nonmetals gain electrons to form negative ions. Click here to see more discussion of ionization energies for various elements. |
