Question

Match the element to the best description of its ionization energy.

A. Fluorine (F)
Low ionization energy
B. Zinc (Zn)
Medium ionization energy
C. Cesium (Cs)
High ionization energy

Answer 1

I think you might have A and C switched.. Fluorine is not very reactive. That's because there are very few electrons/electron shells (less electron shielding) and the electrons are very, very close to the nucleus. This makes it very tight and thus will require more energy to take an electron.

Cesium on the other hand is very reactive. It has lots of electrons (more electron shielding), which means that there are lots of electrons that are further out from the nucleus, making the electrons "loose". These electrons can be easily pulled and thus requires less amount of energy to ionize.

Hopefully @Michele_Laino can check my work on this!

Answer 2

from the table of my textbook of Chemistry, I get the subsequent value for the energy of first ionization:

\(Fluorine---> IE_1= 1682 \;kJoules/mole\)
\(Zinc--->IE_1=904 \;kJoules/mole\)
\(Cesium--->IE_1=377\;kJoules/mole\)
here \(IE_1\) stands for first ionization energy
As we can see the value of \(IE_1\) is decreasing as the atomic number increases. Such behaviour can be explained, if we keep in mind that, when atomic number increases, then there are more electrons which surround the corresponding nucleus, so the outer electron is less bound to its nucleus, and it requires less energy in order to detach it from its nucleus

Answer 3

Yay X) Thanks for including the values! Good idea

Answer 4

:)