TRENDS IN ELECTRONEGATIVITY OF 3rd PERIOD
Electronegativity is a measure of the tendency of an atom to
attract a shared pair of electrons towards itself.
Elements
|
Na
|
Mg
|
Al
|
SI
|
P
|
S
|
Cl
|
Ar
|
Electronegativity
|
0.93
|
1.13
|
1.81
|
2.02
|
2.19
|
2.58
|
3.16
|
-
|
Note that EN of Ar is not included. Electronegativity is
related to the tendency of an atom to attract the shared pair to attract the
shared pair of electrons. Since Argon does not form covalent bonds, you
obviously cannot assign it an electronegativity value.
Moving from one elements to the next across the period,
nuclear charge increases by 1 unit and one electron is added to the outer
shell. As the positive charge on the nucleus rises, the atom has increasing
electron attracting power and therefore an increasing electronegativity.
Comments