First ionisation energy equations.. help?!

I've just started year one A levels and I've been set questions on the first chapter of the textbook. There's some easy questions about TOF mass spectrometry and basic atomic configuration, but we've been set the end of chapter questions to do when were only on page 10, we haven't covered half the chapter. The teacher expects us to do ALL the questions, but most of them are about "first ionisation energy"? And the equations and rearranging it.. I've read the textbook, explanations online and nothing is going in, I'm tired anyway and I just don't understand it for some reason? I'm normally good at learning new information but it's really stressing me out and I need to somehow answer really obscure questions on concepts I haven't been taught yet and don't understand. Can anyone try and dumb it down for me a bit? Thanks :redface:

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 1

alow

19

Are there any specific questions you have?

1st IE is just the energy required to remove one mole of electrons from one mole of atoms in the gas phase. The more tightly bound the highest energy electron is, the higher the 1st IE.

Reply 2

richpanda

16

Nope a mole is just an amount. With ionisation energy, the units are kJ per mol because that's how many kilojoules it would take to remove 6.02 x 10^23 of that specific electron in that specific position.

I don't think you ever need to do calculations with ionisation energy, you just have to be able to compare data and explain it.

Also, higher energy level requires LESS energy to remove an electron.

Reply 3

CheeseIsVeg

22

Original post by LDS16

I've just started year one A levels and I've been set questions on the first chapter of the textbook. There's some easy questions about TOF mass spectrometry and basic atomic configuration, but we've been set the end of chapter questions to do when were only on page 10, we haven't covered half the chapter. The teacher expects us to do ALL the questions, but most of them are about "first ionisation energy"? And the equations and rearranging it.. I've read the textbook, explanations online and nothing is going in, I'm tired anyway and I just don't understand it for some reason? I'm normally good at learning new information but it's really stressing me out and I need to somehow answer really obscure questions on concepts I haven't been taught yet and don't understand. Can anyone try and dumb it down for me a bit? Thanks :redface:

@CheeseIsVeg & anyone else who can actually do chemistry (not me)

First ionisation energy = the amount of energy required to remove 1 mole of electrons from 1 mole of gaseous atoms to form 1 mole of gaseous ions with a 1+ charge

Equations relating first ionisation energy usually are in the form: X (g) --> X^+(g) + e^-
The electron removed = e^-
Hope this makes sense, feel free to post the question, ask more questions :wink:

Reply 4

CheeseIsVeg

22

Basically an electron has a relative charge of -1, therefore it is put to the power of -1 (^-)

I'm not going to confuse you by telling you the actual charge in Coulombs, even though I really want to :colone:

Anything else?

Reply 5

alow

19

An electron in a higher energy level needs less energy to be removed.

Read this: http://www.chemguide.co.uk/atoms/properties/ies.html

Reply 6

alow

19

Original post by CheeseIsVeg

I'm not going to confuse you by telling you the actual charge in Coulombs, even though I really want to :colone:

-1e

is the actual charge, the Coulomb is just an arbitrarily defined unit.

Reply 7

CheeseIsVeg

22

Original post by alow

-1e

is the actual charge, the Coulomb is just an arbitrarily defined unit.

Reply 8

CheeseIsVeg

22

Feed me Chemistry questions :colone:

How many electrons has a neutral aluminium atom got?
What does it have to do to get the number of electrons of the ion in the question?

I meant "how many electrons must it lose to attain the configuration in the question?"

Reply 11

GabbytheGreek_48

11

Actually energy levels go 1s^2 2s^2 2p^6 3s^2 3p^1 (for aluminium which had 13 electrons)

So for each respective ionisation just take off an electron if there are no electrons left in that she'll then you don't write it in the configuration

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 12

CheeseIsVeg

22

You are along the right lines.
So Aluminium has 13 electrons
These lie in the 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p1 sub shells
the question ends in 3s1
I have bolded where 3s1 is in aluminium's full electronic configuration
How many ionisations is this?Well 3p1 = 1, to get to 3s1 we then knock off another electron, therefore it would be 2nd ionisation :wink:

(2 electrons lost :wink:

)

Reply 13

CheeseIsVeg

22