Electronegativity
is a chemical property that describes the ability of an atom to attract electrons towards itself. It is an essential concept in chemistry, used to predict and explain a wide range of chemical phenomena, including bond formation, molecular structure, and reactivity. Electronegativity can be found using various methods, including the Pauling scale, the Mulliken scale, and the Allred-Rochow scale.
Electronegativity is a periodic trend, meaning that it increases from left to right across a period and decreases from top to bottom within a group. This trend is due to the increasing number of protons in the nucleus, which attracts electrons more strongly, and the increasing number of electron shells, which shield the nucleus from the electrons.
