Honors Chemistry - Unit 3: Vocab

alkali metals

• 1st group

• all have 1 valence electron

• all have a common oxidation state of +1 (cations)

• all react strongly with water

alkaline earth metals

• 2nd group

• all have 2 valence electrons

• all have a common oxidation state of +2 (cations)

transition metals

• not a family (d & p metals)

• tend to form different and somewhat stable oxidation states

halogens

• next to noble gases

• all have 7 valence electrons

• highly reactive

noble gases

• except He (which has 2), all have 8 valence electrons

• all have a common oxidation state of 0

• all inert

• positive electron affinity

• zero electronegativity

• extremely large ionization energy

• very large CLF

cation

• smaller than their parent atoms

• positively charged

anion

• larger than their parent atoms

• negatively charged

isoelectronic

different element with the same electron configuration

oxidation state

charge or charges of an ion when it is relatively stable

Coulomb’s Law

qualitative and somewhat quantitative way to understand and measure a valence electron’s attraction or repulsion from another source

• if the source is the nucleus, it is attraction

• if the source is another electron, it is repulsion

CLF = (q₁ * q₂) / r²

ionization energy

• amount of energy gained by an atom when it loses an electron

• always positive

effective nuclear charge

• Z_eff = #protons - #core electrons

• net positive charge experienced by an electron because it is shielded from the total charge by core electrons

electron affinity

• amount of energy lost by an atom when it gains an electron

• usually negative

atomic radius

• distance from the nucleus to the edge of the atom’s electron cloud

• not the same as r in CLF

• increases from top to bottom due to the addition of electron shells, which is farther from the nucleus

• decreases from left to right because the number of protons increases, which increases the positive charge and results in a much stronger attraction

electronegativity

numerical scale representing the tendency for an atom to attract electrons

metals

• reacts by giving (losing) electrons

• low ionization energy

• small CLF

non metals

• reacts by taking (gaining) electrons

• high ionization energy

• large CLF 

metalloid

• elements with intermediate properties between metals and non-metals

• found on the “staircase” line of the periodic table

• varying oxidation states

ion radius

• distance from the nucleus to the outermost electron shell in an ion

• cations are smaller than their parent atoms (lost electrons)

• anions are larger than their parent atoms (gained electrons)