Sodium

Properties of sodium atoms

Ionisation Energies and electron affinity

The electron affinity of sodium is 52.8  kJ mol^-1. The ionisation energies of sodium are given below.

Electronic configuration

The following represents the electronic configuration and its associated term symbol for the ground state neutral gaseous atom. The configuration associated with sodium in its compounds is not necessarily the same.

• Ground state electron configuration:  [Ne].3s¹
• Shell structure:  2.8.1
• Term symbol:   ²S_1/2

The bright yellow transition of Na at 589 nm, labelled "D" in the solar spectrum, is actually a pair of lines, that is, a "doublet".

A schematic representation of the shell structure of sodium - not what the atom of sodium "looks like".

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