Down Group 1 and 17 Across Period 3

1. Atomic and Atomic Radii increase down each
Ionic Radii group. {The radius increases
sharply between the noble gas at
the end of each period and the
alkali metal at the beginning of the
next period.}
Atomic Radii generally decrease
from left to right along each period
of the table, from the alkali metals
to the noble gases

Ionic radii increase upon Ionic radii decrease going from left
descending a group. to right across a period.

2. Melting and For Groups 1 and 2, the boiling and Increase from Sodium to Silicon,
Boiling Points melting points decrease as you but decreases from Phosphorous
move down the group. onwards.

Transition metals,
Boiling and melting points mostly
increase as you move down the
group.

Decrease as you go down for the

zinc family (Group 12).

The boron and carbon families

(Groups 13 and 14) decrease in
their boiling and melting points as
you move down the group.
_____________________________

The nitrogen, oxygen, and fluorine

families (Groups 15, 16, and 17)
tend to increase in as you move
down the group.

The noble gases (Group 18)

decrease in their boiling and
melting points down the group.

3. First Ionization First Ionization energy of elements First ionization energy of elements
energy of decrease going down the group. increases going from left to right.
elements
Reasons for Trends:

Ionic Radii
Ions may be larger or smaller than the neutral atom, depending on the ion’s charge. When an atom
loses an electron to form a cation, the lost electron no longer contributes to shielding the other
electrons from the charge of the nucleus; consequently, the other electrons are more strongly
attracted to the nucleus, and the radius of the atom gets smaller. Similarly, when an electron is
added to an atom, forming an anion, the added electron repels other electrons, resulting in an
increase in the size of the atom.

First ionization energy of elements:

The first ionization energy is the energy required to remove the most loosely held
electron from one mole of gaseous atoms to produce 1 mole of gaseous ions each
with a charge of +1.

Moving left to right within a period or upward within a group, the first ionization energy generally
increases. As the atomic radius decreases, it becomes harder to remove an electron that is closer to
a more positively charged nucleus. Conversely, as one progresses down a group on the periodic
table, the ionization energy will likely decrease since the valence electrons are farther away from the
nucleus and experience greater shielding. They experience a weaker attraction to the positive charge
of the nucleus. Ionization energy increases from left to right in a period and decreases from top to
bottom in a group.

The ionization energy of an element increases as one moves across a period in the periodic table
because the electrons are held tighter by the higher effective nuclear charge. This is because
additional electrons in the same shell do not substantially contribute to shielding each other from
the nucleus, however an increase in atomic number corresponds to an increase in the number of
protons in the nucleus.

The ionization energy of the elements increases as one moves up a given group because the
electrons are held in lower-energy orbitals, closer to the nucleus and thus more tightly bound
(harder to remove).

Based on these two principles, the easiest element to ionize is francium and the hardest to ionize is
helium.
Melting and Boiling Point
Melting and boiling points increase across the three metals because of the increasing strength of
their metallic bonds. The number of electrons which each atom can contribute to the delocalized
"sea of electrons" increases. The atoms also get smaller and have more protons as you go from
sodium to magnesium to Aluminium. The attractions and therefore the melting and boiling points
increase because:

 The nuclei of the atoms are more positively charged.

 The "sea" is more negatively charged.
 The "sea" is progressively nearer to the nuclei and thus is more strongly attracted.

Silicon

Silicon has high melting and boiling points due to its network covalent structure. Melting or boiling
silicon requires the breaking of strong covalent bonds. Because of the two different types of bonding
in silicon and aluminium, it makes little sense to directly compare the two melting and boiling points.

The four molecular elements

Phosphorus, Sulfur, Chlorine and Argon are simple molecular substances with only van der Waals
attractions between the molecules. Their melting or boiling points are lower than those of the first
four members of the period which have complex structures. The magnitudes of the melting and
boiling points are governed entirely by the sizes of the molecules, which are shown again for
reference:

 Phosphorus: Elemental phosphorus adopts the tetrahedral P4 arrangement. Melting

phosphorus breaks no covalent bonds; instead, it disrupts the much weaker van der Waals
forces between the molecules.
 Sulfur: Elemental Sulfur forms S8 rings of atoms. The molecules are bigger than phosphorus
molecules, and thus the van der Waals attractions are stronger, leading to a higher melting
and boiling point.
 Chlorine: Chlorine, Cl2, is a much smaller molecule with comparatively weak van der Waals
attractions, and thus chlorine will have a lower melting and boiling point than sulfur or
phosphorus.
 Argon: Elemental argon is monatomic. The scope for van der Waals attractions between
argon atoms is very limited and so the melting and boiling points of argon are lower again.
Sources:

1) https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Inorganic_Chemistry/
Supplemental_Modules_and_Websites_(Inorganic_Chemistry)/Descriptive_Chemistry/
Elements_Organized_by_Period/Period_3_Elements/
Physical_Properties_of_Period_3_Elements

2) https://courses.lumenlearning.com/trident-boundless-chemistry/chapter/periodic-trends/