electron affinity

[pizza1994]

electron affinity is the amt of energy released upon gaining an electron and so a high electron affinity would mean a large amount of energy is released and so does this mean that its unfavorable for the atom to gain an electron?

Im a bit confused as to what does high electron affinity mean in terms of energy and how favorable it is to gain an electron?

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[Chrisz]

There is a correlation between electron affinity and ionization energy, both due to the distance from the effective charge in the nucleus, attractive force. As going from left to right, bottom to up, both electron affinity and ionization energy goes up. However, no one would use electron affinity to compare ionization energy since we have ionization energy already. Another there are exceptions to the general trends in both cases

 

[dnrs]

Remember that more energy released (less final energy) is more stable.

 

[NextStepTutor_1]

electron affinity is the amt of energy released upon gaining an electron and so a high electron affinity would mean a large amount of energy is released and so does this mean that its unfavorable for the atom to gain an electron?

Im a bit confused as to what does high electron affinity mean in terms of energy and how favorable it is to gain an electron?

@dnrs is correct. If more energy is released you will have a product at a lower level of energy (i.e. less reactive and more stable).
We can use the example of enthalpy (∆H), Gibbs free energy (∆G), and a reaction pathway diagram to illustrate this. When the reactants lose energy to form the products (an exothermic rx.), ∆H is negative and tends to create a negative ∆G (if ∆S is positive) which means the reaction is spontaneous and thus favorable.




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