SAPLING #20

[Lucy Wang 2J]

Identify the reasons why oxygen has a lower first ionization energy than both nitrogen and flourine.

So I understand why oxygen has a lower first ionization energy than oxygen but can someone explain why for nitrogen?

[VincentLe_3A]

Oxygen has a lower first ionization energy compared to nitrogen because when we look at their electron configuration in the p subshell, we see that nitrogen has three unpaired electrons in each of the px, py, and pz orbitals. However, oxygen has one pair of electrons in one of those orbitals in the p subshell. This pairing results in more electron-electron repulsion in the p subshell of oxygen, therefore making the ionization energy lower as it requires less energy to remove an electron due to this repulsion. So in terms of the homework problem, oxygen would be relieved of electron-electron repulsion when it loses an electron within that 2p orbital, making it more stable.

[Jason_John_2F]

nitrogen is more stable due to its half filled orbital meaning that oxygen wants to give away its electron to become more stable due to electron electron repulsion which is why its ionization energy is lower

[Helena Xu 1I]

Nitrogen has 3 unpaired electrons in the 2p subshell and oxygen has 4 electrons in the 2p subshell. This means that one of the orbitals will contain a pair of electrons for oxygen, which results in electron-electron repulsion. Removing an electron from oxygen will make it more stable and thus it has a lower ionization energy.

[Brandon Le 3C]

Nitrogen is most stable than oxygen, since nitrogen has only 3 unpaired electrons in its 2p orbital while oxygen has 4 unpaired electrons in the 2p orbital. Because of this, oxygen is trying to remove an electron to stabilize itself because of electron electron repulsion, so the ionization energy will be lower.