Question

An unknown element has the following ionization energies:

Please answer all questions

IE₁ = 570 kJ/mol   

IE₂ = 1431 kJ/mol   

IE₃ = 2023 kJ/mol       

IE₄ = 10,521 kJ/mol  

IE₅ = 13,288 kJ/mol

            

a) Based on this information, how many valence electrons does this element have?

Explain your answer.

b) In view of your answer in part a), what charge would this element likely form, and would it be a metal or non-metal?  (Assume it is not a metalloid).  Explain.

Answer 1

a) we can see from the given data there is a spike in ionisation energy values at IE₄, which generally happens when it has already reached octet configuration. So we can say that it has 3 valance electrons and after the removal of these three valency electrons, it will attain some stable full-filled configuration may be an octet configuration and removing the next electron i.e; the fourth electron will be harder and requires a lot of energy to do it, so there will be a spike in ionisation energies here.

There, this atom has 3 valency electrons.

b) Since it has 3 valency electrons, it may form an ion with charge +3 because then it will obtain a stable electronic configuration.

Non-metals gain electrons and metals lose electrons. So if an element is losing electron then it is metal.