If the electron affinity for an element is a negative number, does it mean that the anion of the element is more stable than the neutral atom? Explain.

Video transcript

Hi everyone for this problem it reads is the neutral atom of an element with a negative electron affinity more stable than it's an ion. Why? Okay. So let's recall that electron affinity. Is the energy change from the addition of an electron to a gaseous element or ion. So let's go ahead and write that out. So we have a gaseous atom and we're adding an electron. Okay, So this is our product. Alright. If electron affinity is negative and in this case that's what we're told, we have a negative electron affinity, if the electron affinity is negative then the combined energy of the neutral atom and the free electron is going to have um it's going to be greater than the energy of the ion. So let's write that out. So we have the energy of the ion and then we have the energy of the atom plus the energy of the electron. Okay, so the energy of the ion is going to be less than the combined energy of the atom and the electron. And remember there's an inverse relationship between energy and stability. Okay, so the lower the energy equals the more stable. Okay, so these have an inverse relationship. So the question is asking is the neutral atom of an element with a negative electron affinity more stable than it's an eye on. The answer to this is going to be no. And that is because the energy of the an ion is lower than the combined energy of the neutral atom and the free electron. So that is going to be described by answer choice C here. And that's because we're looking at the relationship between the energy of the ion and the energy of the combined atom and electron. That's it. For this problem, I hope this was helpful.