{"id":3636,"date":"2025-06-02T16:06:18","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T10:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leverageedu.com\/questions-answers\/?p=3636"},"modified":"2025-06-02T16:06:22","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T10:36:22","slug":"what-do-you-mean-by-electronegativity-class-11-chemistry-cbse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leverageedu.com\/questions-answers\/what-do-you-mean-by-electronegativity-class-11-chemistry-cbse\/","title":{"rendered":"What do you mean by electronegativity?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chemistry is full of interesting terms that describe how atoms behave and bond with each other. One such important concept is electronegativity. Let\u2019s find out what it means and why it matters!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is Electronegativity?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Electronegativity is the ability of an atom to attract the shared pair of electrons towards itself in a chemical bond. When two atoms form a bond by sharing electrons, they don\u2019t always share them equally. Some atoms are better at pulling electrons towards themselves, and this pulling power is called electronegativity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, in a water molecule (H\u2082O), the oxygen atom is more electronegative than hydrogen, so it pulls the shared electrons closer to itself. This gives oxygen a slight negative charge and hydrogen a slight positive charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who Introduced the Concept?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The concept of electronegativity was introduced by Linus Pauling, a famous American chemist. He even created a scale called the Pauling Scale to assign electronegativity values to elements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Electronegativity in the Periodic Table<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Electronegativity values vary across the periodic table and follow certain patterns:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trend<\/strong><\/td>Description<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Across a Period (\u2192)<\/strong><\/td>Electronegativity increases. Atoms have more protons and a smaller radius, so they attract electrons more strongly.<\/td><\/tr>
Down a Group (\u2193)<\/strong><\/td>Electronegativity decreases. Atoms get larger, and the outer electrons are farther from the nucleus, so the attraction weakens.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n