Question

Consider the following statement: "Because oxygen wants to have a negative two charge, the second electron affinity is more negative than the first." Indicate everything that is correct in this statement. Indicate everything that is incorrect. Correct the incorrect statements and explain.

Short answer

The corrected statement is: "Because oxygen wants to have a negative two charge, it can attract two additional electrons. However, the second electron affinity is less negative than the first due to increased electron-electron repulsion." Oxygen aims to achieve a stable electron configuration (full octet) by gaining two electrons. The first electron affinity is negative due to energy release, but the second electron affinity is less negative or even positive due to electron-electron repulsion and the need for energy input.

Step-by-step solution

Identify what is correct in the statement

The statement correctly states that oxygen wants to have a negative two charge. This is because oxygen has six valence electrons, and it needs two more electrons to achieve a full octet, which gives it a stable electron configuration like that of noble gases.

Identify what is incorrect in the statement

The incorrect part of the statement is that "the second electron affinity is more negative than the first." In reality, the first electron affinity is usually a negative value since energy is released when an electron is added to an atom, but the second electron affinity is typically less negative than the first or even positive. This is because the added electron will experience electron-electron repulsion, which requires energy input.

Correct the statement and provide an explanation

The corrected statement should read: "Because oxygen wants to have a negative two charge, it can attract two additional electrons. However, the second electron affinity is less negative than the first due to increased electron-electron repulsion." The explanation for the corrected statement is as follows: Oxygen aims to achieve a stable electron configuration (full octet) by achieving a negative two charge (which implies gaining two electrons). The first electron affinity typically results in a release of energy (negative value) when an electron is added to an atom. However, the second electron affinity will result in a less negative value, or even a positive value, since the added electron will experience electron-electron repulsion. This second electron addition requires energy input, which is why the second electron affinity will not be more negative than the first.