Question

Explain why the ionization energy to remove a second electron from potassium is higher than the ionization energy to remove four electrons from silicon.

Answer 1

Explanation:

It is more difficult to remove electrons from the second shell or energy level because of the imbalance between the positive nuclear charge and the remaining electrons.

• The amount of energy required to remove electrons in ground state of an atom is the ionization energy.
• The first ionization energy is the energy needed to remove the most loosely bound electron of an atom in the gas phase in ground state.
• The second energy has a greater nuclear pull as it is closer to the nucleus.
• Both potassium and silicon have the same number of energy levels.