Electron Affinity

Question 1

What is Electron Affinity?

Answer 1

It is defined as the amount of energy released when an electron is added to an isolated atom of an element in a gaseous state. It is also known as electron gain enthalpy.
Half or full filled electronic config have low electron affinity.

Question 2

What is the relation of half filled or full filled electronic configurations to IE and EA?

Answer 2

IE - More
EA - Less

Question 2

What are the Periodic Trends in Electron Affinity?

Answer 2

• Electron affinity increases going left to right across a period because of increased nuclear attraction.
• Going down the group the electron affinity should decrease because of decreases nuclear attraction.

Question 2

Which group has the highest EA in periodic table?

Answer 2

Halogens have the highest E.A. This is because they require only one electron to gain stable electronic configuration.

Question 3

Chlorine has greater EA than Florine, why?

Answer 3

Chlorine has high E.A. than fluorine because of the small size of F, it has strong inter-electronic repulsion which tries to prevent incoming electron to be added in the shell.

Question 4

Low EA means ?

Answer 4

Less amount of tendency to form anion.

Question 5

High EA means?

Answer 5

Hight amount of tendency to form anion.

Question 6

Greater the energy released, greater will be its?

Answer 6

EA

Question 7

Differences between electron affinity and electronegativity :

Answer 7

• EN:
  Definition: Electronegativity is the ability of an atom to attract the shared pair of electrons in chemical bond. It is measured of isolated gaseous atom.

Unit: Electronegativity has no units; it is a relative scale, with the most common one being the Pauling scale.

Conceptual Focus: It focuses on the tendency of an atom to pull electrons toward itself when bonded with another atom.
- EA :
Definition: Electron affinity is the amount of energy released (or sometimes absorbed) when an isolated, neutral atom gains an electron to form a negative ion. It is measured of a molecule.

Unit: Measured in kJ/mol or eV (energy units).

Conceptual Focus: It measures the energy change when an atom gains an electron.

Question 8

Difference between electropositivity and IE :

Answer 8

Electropositivity is a qualitative property describing the ease of losing electrons, while ionization energy is a quantitative measure of the energy required to do so.