Question

Of the elements Na, Mg, Al, and Ra, which has the highest second ionization energy and which has the least second ionization energy?

Answer 1

@elementwielder Hey :) do you have any idea about this stuff?

Answer 2

unfortunately like i said before im not big in chem yet...

Answer 3

yea its ok :) I was just wondering if you might know about this one :)

Answer 4

thank you for popping in anyways :)

Answer 5

lol im in the basic stuff... like what an element is and the periodic table... maybe this website can help you out... http://www.ptable.com/

Answer 6

k :) thanks

Answer 7

Ionization energy increases the higher up you go on the period table, and far right as you go on the period table, Remeber, first it depends on how much higher it is, then how far right it is.

Answer 8

yw

Answer 9

but does that work for second ionization energies too? or just first ones?

Answer 10

Oh, I see, didn't fully read it.

Answer 11

Have you encountered electronic configurations?

Answer 12

yeah

Answer 13

so the easiest way to see what the answer is is to write them out, then remove an electron to see the next ionization and how the electrons are arranged.

Answer 14

The second ionization energy is the energy it takes to remove an electron from a 1+ ion. (That means that the atom has already lost one electron, you are now removing the second.)

Ionization energy is always the same.

Answer 15

Like @aaronq said, figure it out then use the ionization rule.

Answer 16

And what I mean by ionization energy is always the same, meaning you can use the same rule up, then far right.

Answer 17

k, I will write them out then see

Answer 18

@aaronq i have the electron configurations...what do I do now?

Answer 19

so remove an electron and then rank the second ionization based on the position of the next electron.

For example, \(Na^+\) is \(1s^22s^22p^6\), which is a noble gas configuration. Noble gas configurations are the most stable and therefore have the highest ionization energies. So, we can conclude that Na has the highest second ionization energy thus narrowing down your options.

Answer 20

oh...so basically just just take away the number of electrons that it states for ionization energy (ie. second, take away 1, third take away 2, etc.). Then, use the same rules for first ionization energy? does that mean that the least ionization energy would be Ra?

Answer 21

yeah pretty much. I wasn't sure if you were going to be able to visualize this without explicitly writing them out, but that's good.

So now your options are either Mg or Al

Answer 22

options for what?

Answer 23

Yup that's the way to do it, pretty easy, and yes same goes for 3rd ionization energy and 4th.. and so on.

Answer 24

options for your answer

Answer 25

The lowest is not Ra?

Answer 26

Oh, right. I thought the question wanted the second least second ionization energy as in the penultimate one lol

so yeah, those are your answers.

Answer 27

ok awesome :) it makes sense! I think my teacher is overcomplicating everything...

Answer 28

sweet! yeah it's really not that difficult

for future reference, you dont really need to write out the electron configurations, they're actually arranged that way on the periodic table.

Answer 29

ok, thank you!!

Answer 30

no problem, dude !