Ionization energy [ENDORSED]

[kiara chan]

I'm really confused on how removing the second electron is harder than removing the first one, can anyone explain why?

[Cecilia Lei 3K]

Because after removing the first electron, the other electrons are pulled closer to the positive nuclear charge, making them harder to remove.

[Cindy Vo 3E]

After removing one electron, the positive charge from the nucleus is distributed over fewer electrons. Thus, the positive pull on the electrons is stronger, which makes removing the second one harder. Therefore, removing the second electron requires more energy.

[kylanjin]

Removing a second electron would mean removing it from a stronger nuclear charge, which would increase the energy required to remove it.

[Kaitlyn Bateman 1L]

Hi! Because there is less electrons once the first one is removed, the nucleus has more effect and attraction to the rest of the electrons. This stronger pull makes it so removing another one is more energy.

[Maxwell Yao]

After removing the first electron, the atom now has a +1 positive charge meaning that there is 1 more proton than there are electrons. This makes the electrostatic attraction between the electrons and nucleus much much stronger; therefore, the second ionization energy is always going to be higher than the first.

I hope this helps.

[amara ajon 1d]

Hi,
The 2nd ionization energy is typically higher than the 1st since, after removing the first electron, the nucleus has a stronger (positive) effect on the rest of the electrons — making it harder to remove another one.

[Alexis Shen 2G]

Similar to what the rest of my peers said: after removing one electron, there is less negative charge and more positive charge. Since the nucleus is where all of the positive charge is and it is very dense, the other electrons are more attracted to the nucleus. This makes it harder to take off another electron.

[305749341]

After removing the first electron, the attraction from the nucleus to the electrons becomes tighter. Therefore, it requires more energy to remove an electron after one has already been removed. In the same way, if after removing one electron, the valence electron is now in another shell it will require even more energy to remove an electron from a stable eight configuration.

[Sarah Lesmeister 2F]

The second ionization energy of an atom is always higher than the first because the electrons are now more attracted to the nucleus, so it will require more energy to remove another electron.

[Sabira Mohammed 3I]

Hello,

So basically after the first electron is removed there are less electrons and therefore less shielding, so the second electron is more attracted to the positive nucleus than it was before and so the ionization energy for it is higher.

[Caitlyn Lo 2F]

The second ionization energy is higher than the first ionization energy because after removing the first electron, there are more protons than electrons, causing the attraction between the nucleus and the electrons to be stronger than before. Due to this stronger bond, the second electron requires more energy to remove in order to counteract the strong attraction between the electrons and the nucleus.

[Benjamin Nguyen 1J]

The second ionization energy is greater because after the first electron is removed, there are now more protons than electrons and the effective nuclear charge on the remaining electrons is greater, making it harder to remove a second electron.

[Konmal Ali 1G]

Removing the second electron is significantly more difficult than removing the first due to the first ionization energy being less than the second. Another way to explain this is that the number of electrons causing repulsions is reduced which leads to removing the second electron harder.

[Talia Tam 3L]

After removing the first electron, there are more protons than electrons. Thus the remaining electrons experience a stronger attraction to the nucleus and require more energy to remove.

[Jillian Sarquiz- 2B]

After removing the first electron, the electron repulsion decreases and the second electron is more tightly held.

[Alejandro Oliva 2F]

The second ionization energy is greater than the first because the removal of the first electron results in their being more protons than electrons in the substance. This new disparity causes the attraction from the nucleus to the orbiting electrons to increase and create a stronger bond. With greater attraction, a substance requires even greater energy than before for any more electrons to be removed.

[405716590]

There is less electron electron repultion after the first is removed

[Shawn Suen]

The second electron is harder to remove because there is less electron-electron repulsion and because of this, the second electron's attraction to the nucleus is stronger than before, and since its stronger, it takes more energy to remove.

[Maeve Settle 2B]

Hi! All these answers are absolutely correct. I just wanted to add that the second ionization energy for ns^2 atoms is relatively low compared to other second ionization energies because losing that last S electron would give the atom a stable noble gas valence electron configuration. However, relative to the first ionization energy, this second ionization energy is still quite high. Hope this helps!

[Shiley_David_1D]

I'm really confused on how removing the second electron is harder than removing the first one, can anyone explain why?

Hi!

This is just to add a different perspective to what everyone else has already stated, but the way I like to think of it is:

The electron that is removed first is the outermost electron, therefore making it the least bound. It is almost like there is a magnet in the center of a circle with bigger circles around it. As the magnets on the surrounding circles get placed on the larger and larger circles farther away from the magnet in the center, they become easier to remove because there is less attraction to the magnet in the center. Additionally, when you lose an electron, there are more protons than previously which binds the electrons more strongly. Generally, it requires more energy to remove an electron from a cation than a neutral atom.

Hope this helps!

[Ruiyu Li 3I]

After removing the one electron, the number of electrons is less than the number of protons, which means the nuclear charge is going to pull the electrons closer together. Thus, removing a second electron is harder and requires more energy than removing the first electron.

[Anubhav_Chandla1G]

After removing the first electron, the second electron is pulled closer together due to an increase in positive charge. This leads to more energy being required to remove the second electron since there is a higher positive charge that needs to be displaced in order to remove the second electron.