Question

Sodium and chlorine are in the same period of the Periodic Table:

Which is more electronegative, sodium or chlorine?

Answer 1

Electronegativity: The tendency to attract shared a paired electron towards itself in a covalent bond is called electronegativity

• Sodium element has one electron in its outermost shell so it loses one electron and forms a cation
• The chlorine element has seven electrons in its outermost shell and it needs one electron to complete its octet, gain one electron and show anion
• electronegative element atom has more electronegativities properties compared to the electropositive element
• So the chlorine atom is more electronegative compared to the sodium atoms
• It is because the sodium atom is electropositive while the chlorine atom is electronegative
• Sodium has an electronegativity of 0.93 and chlorine has an electronegativity of 3.16
• So, when sodium and chlorine form an ionic bond, then chlorine takes an electron from sodium from which sodium shows a positive charge ${\mathrm{Na}}^{+}$ and chlorine shows a negative charge as ${\mathrm{Cl}}^{-}$