Rank the following five elements by ionization energy.

Question

Rank from highest to lowest ionization energy. To rank items as equivalent, overlap them.

Na Cl Si Mg P

Answer 1

Hey Anya!

Ionization Energy is one of the several periodic trends of chemistry. As a general rule of thumb, ionization energy increases going up and towards the right on the periodic table.

With Na, Cl, Si, Mg, and P, they are all in the same row, or period of the periodic table. Therefore, we only have to worry about which elements are towards the right or left of the 3rd row of the periodic table.

From highest to lowest ionization energy, our answer would be: Cl, P, Si, Mg, and Na.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

This is related to periodic trends. Sometimes they can get messy but the rule for ionization energy (IE) is that it increase up and to the right. The elements you listed are all in the same row so therefore the IE increases as we go to the right. So from highest to lowest it would be: Cl, P, Si, Mg, Na. The reason ionization energy increases as you go to the right is due to the increasing number of protons per element which pull the electrons in closer making it harder to remove them.

Attached is a link to an image showing the IE trend:

https://periodictrendsforhonorschemistry.weebly.com/ionization-energy.html