[nulliusinverba]

Hi,

Not in a course, am working through a textbook athome and am just trying to think through the following:

As you go across a period, (generally and with exceptions) electron "affinity" increases.  Which means that the energy released by the atom in absorbing the electron increases (i.e. more energy is exothermically emitted from the atom).

How are these two ideas related - i.e. why is it that, if more energy is released, the atom is said to have a higher "affinity" for electrons, and is presumably more likely to consume an electron?

Many thanks for your time.

Kind regards,

Tim.

[Schrödinger]

By releasing more energy, the system attains a lower energy state. A low energy system is considered to be more stable and hence the atom is more likely to consume an electron

[nulliusinverba]

That makes a lot of sense.

Thanks very much for your help, Schrodinger.

Tim.