Trend for Polarizability

[ShreyaKannan1B]

What's the trend for polarizability?

[AndreiRekesh1I]

It increases as you go left to right and up to down, because it increases depending on how many valence electrons there are and how far away they are from the nucleus.

[Brianna Becerra 1B]

Polarizability increases as the atoms become larger as this causes the electronegativity or electron pulling power to decrease allowing for the electrons to be more easily moved.

[aishwarya_atmakuri]

Larger molecules are more polarizable than smaller ones, so the general trend is decreases across the row and increases down the column. Anions are more polarizable than cations because they are larger.

[Ashley Osorio]

Think of polarizability as "How easily can this atom lose an electron". If it has high polarizability, it'll be really easy for it to lose an electron and vice versa. Bigger atoms have higher polarizability because the bigger an atom is, the more electrons they, and the more electrons they have, the more shielding the valence electrons experience of all of the neighboring electrons from the nucleus's pull. The smaller the atom, the less shielding and therefore the closer it is to a nucleus (that's why the smaller atoms have low polarizability).

[VPatankar_2L]

Cations that are small and have a high charge have large polarizing power. Anions that are large and have small charge have high polarizability.

[Jasmine Yi 1G]

If polarizability increases as an atom gets larger, would it follow the atomic radius trends? As in, increasing as you go down and left on the periodic table? Or is it a separate trend?