Activity3.

1
Investigatingionisationenergies
Tasks

1 Constructaspreadsheet,usingaspreadsheetprogramsuchasMicrosoftExcel ,thatwillenable
youtoplotagraphofthefirstionisationenergyofsodiumagainstthenumberofelectrons
removed.Usethedatabelow:
Electronremoved

Ionisationenergy/kJmol1

1st

494

2nd

4560

3rd

6940

4th

9540

5th

13 400

6th

16 600

7th

20 100

8th

25 500

9th

28 400

10th

141000

11th

158700

a Whatdoyounoticeaboutthegeneraltrendinthesevalues?

[1]

b Howcanyouaccountfortheshapeofthegraphintermsofdistanceoftheelectronsfromthe
nucleusandtheattractiveforcebetweentheouterelectronsandthenucleus?

[7]

2 Nowuseyourspreadsheettoplotasimilargraphoflog10 ionisationenergyagainstthenumberof
electronsremoved.
Whatadvantageisthereinplottingthevaluesonalogarithmicscale?

[1]

3 Useyourspreadsheettoconstructagraphoflog10 firstionisationenergyagainstatomicnumber
forthefirst20elements.YouwillfindthevaluesoffirstionisationenergyinDataSheet2.
WhatpatternscanyouseeacrossaPeriodinthisgraph?

[7]

4 Useyourspreadsheettoconstructagraphoflog10 firstionisationenergyagainstatomicnumber
fortheelementswithatomicnumbers19to35.Youwillfindthevaluesoffirstionisationenergy
inDataSheet2.
Howdoesthisgraphdifferfromtheoneyouplottedinpart3?

CambridgeInternationalASandALevelChemistry

OriginalmaterialCambridgeUniversityPress2011

[4]