Question

What do you understand by the electropositive or electronegative character of an element? How do they vary across a period and on moving down the group in the periodic table?

Answer 1

• The tendency of an element to lose the electrons to form the positive ions is called the electropositive character of an element. It is also called the metallic character. While the electronegative character of an element is the tendency of an atom to pull the shared pair of electrons towards its own side in a covalent bond.
• For example, the elements of group 1A ( alkali metals) possess the least value of electronegativities, practically they have no tendency to pull the shared electron pairs and are called electropositive elements.
• The electropositive character across a period decreases while the electronegative character increases across the period and the electropositive character increases down the group while the electronegative character decreases down the group.