Electronegativity

Closely related to ionization energy and electron affinity is the concept of electronegativity, a measure of the ability of an atom to attract shared electrons in a bond. We usually use electronegativities in a qualitative way, for example, to predict bond polarities. Electronegativities, on a dimensionless scale ranging from 0 to 4, are given in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1. Ionization Energies (eV), Electron Affinities (eV), and Electronegativities