Electronegativity trends

[Jacob Puchalski 1G]

Are we expected to know specific values or just the general trends?

[AVerma_F19]

I think we just need to know the general properties of all the trends.

[Izzie Capra 2E]

I would agree that we just need to know general trends. Electronegativity increases bottom to top in a group and left to right across a period. The top right corner of the periodic table has the highest electronegativity.

[Angela Patel 2J]

What about electronegativity? Does that count as a trend in the periodic table or is it just ionization energy / electron affinity?

[Diana Chavez-Carrillo 2L]

Yes, electronegativity counts as a trend on the periodic table. It is important for things like determining if elements have an ionic bond or a covalent bond. Electronegativity, electron affinity, and ionization energy have the same trend (increase up the table and to the right across the periodic table). However, the atomic radius is the inverse of them in that the trend is that the atomic radius increases going down and to the left of the periodic table. A short and easy way that I learned in my PLF to remember these trends is that Fluorine in the far top right is one of the most electronegative so anything close to it will have a high electronegativity and elements farther from Fluorine will be less electronegative. With atomic radius, I keep the element Radium in mind because it reminds me of "radius" and it is located on the bottom left which contains a high atomic radius (so elements close to radium will have an increased atomic radius and vice verse).

[Jialun Chen 4F]

It's definitely a trend you need to remember along with the atomic radius, I.E., and electron affinity. Yet it's unnecessary to memorize all the values.