the.com/ionization energy
The breakup fee an atom charges before it lets go of an electron.
means It's the amount of energy needed to rip one electron completely away from an atom (or ion), measured for an atom in its gas phase, isolated and friendless.
from The word splits cleanly: 'ion' comes from the Greek 'ienai', meaning 'to go' — coined by Faraday in the 1800s for the charged particles that migrate toward electrodes during electrolysis. 'Energy' traces back to Greek 'energeia', 'activity' or 'being-at-work', from 'en-' (in) plus 'ergon' (work). The compound term itself is a product of early 20th-century atomic physics, once scientists like Bohr and others needed precise language for the cost of prying electrons loose.
- trend
- Rises left to right, falls down a group
- noble gases
- Charge the highest fee, hate losing electrons
- second ionization
- Always costlier than the first, removing from a cation
- units
- Measured in kJ per mole or electron volts