Electron affinity

[Bao Tram Nguyen]

Is electron negativity and electron affinity the same thing? And which direction does it increase on the periodic table?

[Christine Honda 2I]

Electronegativity is a measure of the tendency of an atom to attract a bonding pair of electrons. Electron affinity is defined as the change in energy (in kJ/mole) of a neutral atom (in the gaseous phase) when an electron is added to the atom to form a negative ion.

[Shimei_2F]

Electronegativity measures the tendency of an atom to attract a bonding pair of electrons. Electron affinity is the change in energy of a neutral atom when an electron is added to the atom to form a negative ion. Electron affinity and electronegativity both increase from left to right in a period and up in a group.

[Snigdha Uppu 1G]

Electronegativity and electron affinity increase towards the upper right.

[Lauren Lewis3L]

The most electronegative element would be Flourine. When you move down a group the electronegativity decreases. However, when you move from left to right in a period the electronegativity increases. It makes it easier for me to draw a line from the bottom left corner to the top right corner to visually see the increasing electronegativity.

[preyasikumar_2L]

Electronegativity and electron affinity are not the same thing. The difference between the two is that electronegativity is the chemical property that shows how well an atom can attract electrons, while electron affinity is the amount of energy released when an electron is added to a neutral atom to make a negative ion. Both trends increase up a group and left to right on a period.

[Mulin_Li_2J]

Electronegativity is the not the same concept as electron affinity. The two differs from each other in both definition and measurement process. Electron affinity is defined as the energy it takes to add one electron to an atom, the equation being E(Neutral atom)-E(Neutral atom + 1 electron). It is one of the few equations that use the initial state to subtract the final state, and to interpret this equation, the more positive the values are, the lower energy E(neutral atom) has compared to E(Neutral atom + 1 electron), and thus the easier to add electron onto it. The value of electron affinity for each particle is measured in laboratory with complicated and intricate device which you surely can find more details on the internet if you want to explore.

On the other hand, electronegativity is a mathematical derivation of the combination of the electron affinity and the ionization energy of a particle. It is NOT an experimentally measured unit. I cannot give you the specific equation for calculating electronegativity of a particle. However, there is a general relationship among the values of ionization energy, electron affinity, and electronegativity, which you can apply to figure out when comparing two atoms which one has a higher electronegativity. Typically, the higher the sum of ionization energy and electron affinity an atom has, the higher electronegativity it has. One example would be Florine. Since it has a very high ionization energy since the effective nuclear charge its nucleus imposes on its valence electrons are very strong and a relatively high electron affinity since its nuclear radius is not too big to exert too little attraction, it has the highest electronegativity among all elements in the periodic table.

Hope this can help!