Period 3 trends with explanations Atomic radius

As you go across period 3 the atomic radius decreases. This is due to the fact that there is an increased number of protons and similar shielding. This means that the net charge of attraction experienced by the outermost electrons increases as you go across the period. As a result, the atomic radius decreases as the nucleus has a greater pull on the electron. Melting and boiling points As you go across period 3 both the melting and boiling points increase between the elements sodium and silicon. From

there , there is a decrease up to argon. The only element deviating from this trend is Sulfur which has a slightly higher melting and boiling point compared with the remaining elements. (i.e phosphorous chlorine and argon). Sodium Aluminium The elements Sodium, Magnesium and Aluminium all have a metallic structure which explains their rather high melting and boiling points. Its quite clear from the graph that this metallic bond obviously increases in strength due to the melting and boiling points increasing. The reasoning behind this is that there is a greater number of delocalized electrons. If you were to compare Aluminium to Sodium you would see that not only does it have a greater number of delocalized electrons it also has two more protons within each atom causing a greater attraction. The Aluminium atom also has a smaller radius and so the delocalized electrons are closer to the nuclei. All these factors increase the strength of the bond which will require a greater amount of heat energy to break. Although Magnesium and Aluminium have a similar melting point, it is the boiling point that highlights the fact that the bonds within Aluminium are much stronger.

Silicon Silicon has a giant covalent structure with strong covalent bonds between the atoms. This causes it to have the highest melting point compared to the other elements within the period. Phosphorous-Argon Phosphorus, Sulfur and Chlorine are all simple molecular substances which merely have Van Der Waals attractions between the molecules. This is what causes both their melting and boiling point to be lower than the other elements in the period. The strength of the Van der Waals forces is all dependent on the size of the molecules. Phosphorous exist as P4 molecules which is relatively small. Therefore the Van der Waals forces will be far weaker causing the melting and boiling point to be

low. Sulphur on the other hand forms molecules with 8 atoms. These molecules are obviously bigger than Phosphorous. This causes the melting and boiling point to be higher due to stronger Van der Waals forces. Chlorine is a small diatomic molecule although Argon is slightly smaller due to being monatomic. As a result the Van der Waals present are weaker causing both their melting and boiling points to be the lowest of the whole period. Ionisation energies As you go across period three you will find that the ionisation energies increases. There are however two elements, Aluminium and Sulphur which do not follow this general trend. Ignoring both Aluminium and Sulphur, the reason that the I.E increases as you go across the period is that each element has a higher positive nuclear charge than the previous. Due to the shielding being relatively the same the outermost electron being removed feels a greater net charge of attraction to the nucleus than that of the previous element. Magnesium compared to Aluminium Aluminium has a lower ionisation energy than magnesium. This goes against any assumptions made on the basis that Aluminium has a bigger positive nuclear charge due to the extra proton. Mg: 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 Al: 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p1 The electron in aluminium is being removed from the 3p orbital which is slightly more distant from the nucleus than the 3s in Magnesium. It is also partially screened by the 3s2 electrons as well as the remaining shells. These factors reduce the pull experienced by the electron from the nucleus and thus lower the Ionisation energy for Aluminium.

Phosphorus compared to Sulphur P: 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p3 S:1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p4 The shielding in both elements is identical to some extent. The electrons are being removed from the same orbital. The difference is indicated by the fact that the electron being removed from Sulphur is a paired electron. The repulsion between the pair meas that the electron is easier to remove than it would otherwise be. This is why the I.E for Sulphur is less than Phosphorous.