Periodicity - TOP TIPS

Question 1

If a question asks you why there is a difference in IE between two elements (but these elements are pretty far from each other on the periodic table), what should you think about?

Answer 1

• the general patterns: stuff to do with trends across periods or down groups
• Eg. so if they have the same number of shells but different nuclear charges etc

Question 2

A sixth or seventh ionisation energy means…

Answer 2

the sixth or seventh electron (STARTING FROM THE OUTER SHELL ELECTRON) is being removed.

So the 7th electron in oxygen (1s2 2s2 2p4) is not the 2nd to last electron because this would be the 7th electron if you started counting from the inner most shell. It would actually be the 2nd electron in the inner most shell.

Question 3

When talking about why IE increases across a period, refer to the atoms as having ______ rather than the same shielding

Answer 3

SIMILAR SHIELDING

Question 4

If talking about ionisation energies after removal of one electron, how do you refer to the radius?

Answer 4

IONIC radius

Question 5

What to remember if they ask you to draw an electronic configuration?

Answer 5

CHECK IF IT IS AN ION
and then work out the appropriate number of electrons it would have and count along the period to work out the notation (like 1s2 2s2 2p6 etc)