Which statement applies to electronegativity? a.) electronegativity increases across a period. b.) all atoms with the same number of electron shells have equal electronegativities. c.) electronegativity is the amount of energy required to remove an electron from a gaseous atom. d.) electronegativity increases down a group.

The correct answer is Option A.

Explanation:

Electronegativity is defined as the tendency of an atom to attract the shared pair of electrons towards itself whenever a bond is formed.

This property increases as we move from left to right across a period because the number of charge on the nucleus gets increased and electrons are attracted more towards the nucleus.

This property decreases as we move from top to bottom in a group because the electrons get add up in the new shells which make them further away from the nucleus.

Thus, the correct answer is Option A.

explanation:

metals have excess of electrons whereas non-metals have deficiency of electrons. thus, in order to gain stability metals easily donate their electrons to the non-metals.

for example, electronic configuration of sodium is and electronic configuration of phosphorous is .

when a phosphorous atom and sodium atom combine together then sodium will donate is extra one electron to the phosphorous atom. as a result there will be formation of ionic bond between sodium and phosphorous.

the reaction will be as follows.

there, are three sodium sodium atoms and each of them will donate its one extra electron to phosphorous atom. thus, the sub-shell of phosphorous gets completely filled.  

thus, we can conclude that electrons are transferred from atoms of sodium to atoms of phosphorous. this transfer makes the sodium atoms donate one electron and the phosphorous atoms to gain one electron. as a result, the sodium and phosphorus atoms strongly attract each other.

i just learnt this recently but i need to look through my notes again