Q.Oxygen has less negative electron gain enthalpy than sulfur. Why ?
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →Step 1. Electron gain enthalpy measures the energy released when a neutral gaseous atom gains one electron; a more negative value means the process releases more energy (is more favourable).
Step 2. Oxygen's valence electrons occupy the compact 2p orbitals of the second shell, which are small and already hold existing electrons close together.
Step 3. When an extra electron arrives, it experiences significant repulsion from these already-close electrons, which partly offsets the attraction from the nucleus, so less net energy is released than the simple group trend (based on size and nuclear charge alone) would predict. …
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