Question #db055
1 Answer
A noble gas requires high energy to remove its valence electrons.
Explanation:
The energy needed to remove a valence electron from is called the ionization energy.
There are two reasons why noble gases have high ionization energies.
A noble gas has a filled valence shell. This is the most stable configuration for an atom. It takes more energy to remove an electron from a complete shell than from an incomplete shell.
The noble gases are the smallest atoms in each period.
Atomic size decreases from left to right across a period. The noble gases are at the far right, so they have the smallest atoms.
Their valence electrons are closer to the nucleus, so they are more tightly held. It takes more energy to remove these electrons, so the ionization energy is higher.
