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What is the electron affinity of oxygen?

Answer 1

Electron affinity is defined as the enthalpy change when 1 mol of atoms, accepts 1 mol of electrons to form 1 mol of anions. Both reactants and products are specified to be in the gas phase.

Therefore, the following reaction's enthalpy change is measured by electron affinity:

#E(g) + e^(-) rarr E^(-)(g)#. Where #E# is the generic element.

I have no idea what it is for #O#. Because oxygen is towards the right of the Periodic Table I suspect it will be negative. Why can I make this assessment?

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Answer 2

Avery Adams

The electron affinity of oxygen is -141 kJ/mol.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.