Why does oxygen have a lower ionization energy than oxygen?
1 Answer
Because nitrogen does not have any paired valence
Coulombic repulsion energy decreases the energy input required to remove a
Write out the electron configurations.
#"N"# :#1s^2 2s^2 color(red)(2p^3)#
#ul(uarr color(white)(darr))" "ul(uarr color(white)(darr))" "ul(uarr color(white)(darr))#
#underbrace(" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" ")#
#" "" "" "2p#
#ul(uarr darr)#
#2s#
#"O"# :#1s^2 2s^2 color(red)(2p^4)#
#ul(uarr color(red)(darr))" "ul(uarr color(white)(darr))" "ul(uarr color(white)(darr))#
#underbrace(" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" ")#
#" "" "" "2p#
#ul(uarr darr)#
#2s#
You can see that oxygen has a paired
Thus, oxygen atom has a lower (less positive) ionization energy than nitrogen atom.
