Struck gold! A mystery unravelled

Considering we love it so much, we know very little about gold. We can’t even explain its colour without using Einstein’s special theory of relativity. But, after years of hard work, scientists have unraveled one of its many mysteries.

The issue plaguing scientists for years was the element’s first ionisation energy. ZZZZZZPPPPP. REWIND. Lets explain. It sounds worse than it is. Ever atom has electrons around a nucleus of protons and neutrons, right? Well, the ionisation energy is simply the amount of energy it requires to pull off one of those electrons. The first ionisation energy is the amount of energy it requires to pull off the first electron. Phew. Another ridiculous name is actually quite simple.

It’s really useful to know the ionisation energies of an element because it allows us understand how it will react with other substances. Without them we literally wouldn’t be able to explain why anything in our universe happened. So, obviously, for something this important you should know a little bit more than the fact they exist. Lets start with the three main things that affect an elements ionisation energy. Don’t worry. They’re pretty obvious when you think about it, and they're exactly what you need to know for A level Chemistry.

What affects an atoms first ionization energy.

[if !supportLists]1. [endif]Atomic radius – AKA how large the atom is. Electrons are negative. The nucleus is positive because of protons. Opposites attract. The further away the electrons are from the protons the easier they’ll be to pull off.

[if !supportLists]2. [endif]Nuclear charge – AKA how many protons are saying ‘Eh, you ain’t going nowhere electron.’ The more protons, the more pull they’ll have.

[if !supportLists]3. [endif]Electron shielding – AKA more electrons closer to the nucleus. If more are closer to the nucleus the protons will be too busy holding on to them to worry about lonely electrons further out.

A bit surprising we didn’t know gold’s ionization energy before to be honest.