Why energy is released when an electron is added to a neutral atom?

energy electron-affinity

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If the electron statistical distribution around the atomic kernel had been perfectly spherically symmetric, and if the electron occurance distribution had not mutually overlapped, than by the Gauss law of electrostatics, the net force between a neutral atom and an electron would have been zero.

But as neither of above conditions is true, a kernel charge is not fully screened off by electrons, acting as having a residual, "effective charge", what allows releasing energy by bounding an extra electron. See Slater rules.

An extra electron puts among other electrons some extra stress=mutual repulsion, what somewhat decreases this released energy.

As effective kernel charge and electron mutual repulsion ( classical and Pauli ones ) are 2 major factors affecting energies of electron orbitals in multi-electron atoms.

When the former factor is stronger, energy is released by an extra electron bounding, like for fluorine. And vice versa, like for helium.

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Author by

Wolgwang

Updated on January 31, 2023

Comments

Wolgwang 4 months

Question :

Why energy is released when an electron is added to a neutral atom?

I read somewhere

“When electrons are added to an atom, the increased negative charge puts stress on the electrons already there, causing energy to be released.”

I didn't understand What is stress and how energy is released due to stress?
- AChem over 2 years
  
  Please do not personify atoms and sub-atomic particles. Electrons and atoms are not human beings who have to vent their energy in order to de-stress. Whoever wrote it just ignore this statement because the writer does not know what he/she is writing. Sub-atomic particles have a world of their own which is very different from what we know and understand. There is no such thing as stress or congestion of having too many electrons.
- Wolgwang over 2 years
  
  @M. Farooq Ok I ignore that statement.
- AChem over 2 years
  
  Search about electron affinities "electron affinities can be negative (energy is released when an electron is added), positive (energy must be added to the system to produce an anion), or zero (the process is energetically neutral)". See google.com/…
- AChem over 2 years
  
  The point is that energy is not always released.
- Poutnik over 2 years
  
  @M. Farooq Note that stress has multiple meanings and only some of them are related to feelings as a high discomfort. Some others are objective, like the one used in mechanical engineering as a tension. It may be stretched being applied to quantum systems, but has nothing to do with human emotions.
- Wolgwang over 2 years
  
  @M. Farooq I know that electron affinities can be negative. But my question is “Why sometime energy is released?”
- Poutnik over 2 years
  
  But the stress=repulsion is not reason of energy release.
- Wolgwang over 2 years
  
  @Poutnik Yes. That's why I am asking the reason.
Wolgwang over 2 years

Can you define energy? I thought heat energy changes.
Poutnik over 2 years

Who am I to define energy, if it is already defined and definition available on many places ? :-)
Wolgwang over 2 years

In my physics textbook, it is defined as "The capacity to do work".
Poutnik over 2 years

See e.g.Wikipedia
Wolgwang over 2 years

Ok Got it. Thanks
Admin over 2 years

No element releases energy by losing an electron.
Maurice over 2 years

@ Yuvraj. Sorry ! Your long comment is nearly unreadable, because it has no punctuation sign. No points, no commas !