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Electronegativity trends in the periodic table

Electronegativity is the tendency of an atom to shift the electron density in a chemical bond towards itself. The electronegativity of an element increases with atomic number and decreases with the atomic size. The atomic number increases when we go down and the atomic size decreases from left to right in the periodic table. As a result, the elements found in the top right corner, bar the noble gases, have the highest electronegativity values. From this trend, we can comfortably predict that the most electronegative element is fluorine, followed by oxygen and then nitrogen.

The periodic table, colored to show the relative trend in electronegativity and labeled to show their electronegativity values. Values between 0.8 and 2.0 indicate low electronegativity, while 2.1 to 3.2 are moderately electronegative values. Lastly, elements with values from 3.3 to 4.0 are highly electronegative. The metals in group 1 to 7 have mostly low electronegativity, except the four transition metals, that are moderate. Hydrogen is moderately electronegative. The elements in group 8 to 13 are mostly moderately electronegative except zinc, gallium and aluminum which are lowly electronegative. The groups 14 to 17 are a mix of moderately to highly electronegative elements. The most electronegative elements are shown as fluorine, oxygen and nitrogen. The noble gases are not coloured. The lanthanides and actinides are not shown in this image.

Figure 1: Periodic table of elements showing the elements' relative electronegativity values

Referred from:

Article
Hydrogen bonding