Ionization energy

Ionization energy

Ionization energy is the energy needed to take an electron from an atom. 

The chemical elements to the left of the periodic table have much lower ionization energy. The ones to the right have much higher ionization energy. The chemical elements down the periodic table have much lower ionization energy (due to electrons being farther away from the atom with increasing atomic radius).

The ionization energy increases as each electron is removed.

Ionization energies are dependent upon the atomic radius. Since going from right to left on the periodic table, the atomic radius increases, and the ionization energy increases from left to right in the periods and up the groups. Exceptions to this trend is observed for alkaline earth metals (group 2) and nitrogen group elements (group 15). Typically, group 2 elements have ionization energy greater than group 13 elements and group 15 elements have greater ionization energy than group 16 elements. Groups 2 and 15 have completely and half-filled electronic configuration respectively, thus, it requires more energy to remove an electron from completely filled orbitals than incompletely filled orbitals.

Franck–Condon principle energy diagram. For ionization of a diatomic molecule the only nuclear coordinate is the bond length. The lower curve is the potential energy curve of the neutral molecule, and the upper curve is for the positive ion with a longer bond length. The blue arrow is vertical ionization, here from the ground state of the molecule to the v=2 level of the ion.

The Franck–Condon principle is a rule in spectroscopy and quantum chemistry that explains the intensity of vibronic transitions. Vibronic transitions are the simultaneous changes in electronic and vibrational energy levels of a molecule due to the absorption or emission of a photon of the appropriate energy. The principle states that during an electronic transition, a change from one vibrational energy level to another will be more likely to happen if the two vibrational wave functions overlap more significantly.