Periodic Trends The Periodic table is all the elements in order by atomic number and in columns of elements with similar properties. The organization of the periodic table helps scientist by making it easy to know the properties of an element and to know how reactive the element is. The periodic table has trends that tell the scientists about the elements. Two of the trends are ionization and electron affinity. Ionization and electron affinity tell the scientist how reactive an element is. Ionization is the amount of energy it takes to take a valence electron from an element. Every element wants a full shell of valence electrons and will bond with other atoms to get it. Sodium has a lower ionization level than sulfur, because sodium has one valence electron and it would be easier to give that one away than to gain seven electrons, but sulfur has six valence electrons and it would be easier for it to gain two electrons than to lose. The more valence electrons an atom has the less it wants to give away its electrons, and the atom will have a tighter hold on the electrons which means more energy to take a valence electron. Sodium has a higher Ionization than …show more content…
Elements with more valence electrons want to gain electrons to complete their shell of valence electrons, so they have a stronger electron affinity. Sulfur wants to gain more electrons more than sodium, so the electron affinity is higher. The more rings an atom has the weaker the electron affinity is, because the valence electrons are farther away from the nucleus. Sodium has three electron rings and potassium has four electron rings, so the valence electron on sodium is closer to the nucleus and has a stronger pull to the nucleus than potassium. A valence electron from a different atom would feel the stronger pull of sodium and more likely bond with sodium than potassium. Which means that sodium has a greater electron affinity than