To determine which atom has the highest ionization energy, it's important to understand the periodic trends in the periodic table. Ionization energy generally increases as you move from left to right across a period and decreases as you move down a group.
Here's a step-by-step approach to determine the atom with the highest ionization energy:
1. Periodic Trends:
- Ionization energy increases across a period (left to right) because the effective nuclear charge increases, making it more difficult to remove an electron.
- Ionization energy decreases down a group because the atomic size increases, making it easier to remove an electron due to the weaker attraction between the nucleus and the outermost electron.
2. Exclude Noble Gases:
- Noble gases (Group 18 elements) have very high ionization energies because they have complete valence shells. However, if we generally consider elements excluding noble gases, we can narrow our search.
3. Highest Ionization Energy in a Period:
- Among elements in same period, the element on the far right excluding noble gases typically has the highest ionization energy.
4. Checking Specific Element:
- In the second period (the second row of the periodic table), the elements listed are:
[tex]\[ \text{Li, Be, B, C, N, O, F, Ne} \][/tex]
- Excluding Neon (Ne) since it's a noble gas, the next element with the highest ionization energy in this period is Fluorine (F).
Therefore, among the given elements, Fluorine ([tex]\(F\)[/tex]) has the highest ionization energy.
