Why is the Electron affinity of chlorine greater than that of Flourine? After all, the L shell of Flourine is meant to have 8 electrons.
101The electron being added to fluorine goes into an orbital closer to the positive nucleus than in chlorine so it is more strongly attracted. However, it has to share that orbital with another electron that was there before. This leads to a repulsion. Because the orbital is so small in the case of fluorine this repulsion is much bigger than in the case of chlorine so the electron affinity for F is less negative than for Cl.
119Actually I am in class 8.
So I have no idea of orbitals but I do know about shells.
337Orbitals are subshells. They are parts of a shell...
Anyway, let me try to explain it to you...
Electron affinity is the energy released when you add an electron to an atom (in simple language). Now you know that chlorine is very electronegative as it has a lot of positive charge. Also, it has only a few shells. It is true that fluorine has lesser number of shells. So, the electronegativity of fluorine is more than that of chlorine.
Fluorine has a lot of positive charge and only two shells. As a result, the electrons are attracted a lot. The farthest electron is in the second shell. Chlorine has three shells. So the farthest electron is in the 3rd shell. Thus the shells are pulled towards the nucleus more in fluorine. There is more electrostatic pull (pull by proton) on the valence electrons of fluorine than the valence electrons of chlorine. As a result, fluorine is extremely small. Therefore electrons in the outermost shell are very close to each other. They are so close that there is no space to put in another electron in the valence shell (actually when you bring another electron, it gets repelled by the other electrons as they are very close to each other). Generally energy is given out when you put in one electron. Since there is no space, you need to give energy in order to make space for this new electron. Hence, electron affinity for fluorine is in negative. In chlorine, there is ample space to put in one electron into the valence shell. I hope it is clear. Don't hesitate to question in case its still not clear...
Asmita Chatterjee i dont get this-"chlorine is very electronegative as it has a lot of positive charge???"-how can chlorine have +ve charge???.....also,"fluorine has a lot of positive charge"...how???maybe i dont know something or am wrong.please correct me if that is so...119But the second shell is meant to have 8 electrons.
Sayan Sinha No it is not meant to have eight electrons. Eight is its maximum capacity...119But obviously F- is more stable. Right?
Vinayak Agrawal Sorry and thanks.
Sayan Sinha For stability two things are needed:
1) Duplet or octet
2) Neutrality...Sayan Sinha Neither F nor F- is stable. Stable is F2Asmita Chatterjee Can you explain this theory on stability...actually i didnt get it...thanks..