Successive ionisation energies
What Successive ionisation energies means in Chemistry A-Level, as defined for AQA, OCR.
Definitions of Successive ionisation energies
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Reference: AQA
The second ionisation energy is always larger than the first because the electron is pulled from a positively charged ion that is smaller and holds its remaining electrons more tightly.
These measure removal of the second, third and later electrons from the same gaseous species, each step costing more because the remaining ion holds the electrons more tightly.
The energies needed to remove electrons one at a time from a gaseous atom, with each removal taking more energy than the last.
Topics that use Successive ionisation energies
- Group 2, the alkaline earth metals (AQA A-Level)
- Periodicity (OCR A-Level)
Related terms
- First ionisation energy
- alkalinity of the product
- Applying the sequence to specific elements
- atomic radius
- barium sulfate precipitate
- Cations and delocalised electrons
- cold water versus steam
- delocalised electrons
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