As we know that 'Nitrogen' has higher 'Ionization Energy' than oxygen, opposite to the trend of increasing ionization energy across a period. The reason mentioned everywhere I have read is - the extra stability of half and full-filled orbitals due to exchange energy. Now let's discuss about exchange energy.
Many scholars say that exchange energy is - The amount of energy released when electrons with the same spin swap positions in degenerate orbitals and since exchange is possible maximum in half and full-filled orbitals they are more stable.
This statement raises a lot of questions in my mind -
1. First of all What kind of energy is this ? - electrical, magnetic, nuclear, or anything else that I have not come across yet.
2. When we go across a period let's say from boron to carbon, a electron enters in carbon 2p orbital with the same spin as of another and that leads to release 'exchange' energy so from where did that exchange energy come to electron?
3. When we ionize hydrogen (no exchange energy in hydrogen) by supplying energy to it, electron use it to break the attraction between the nucleus and itself and comes out of the reach of the nucleus. But In nitrogen, valence electron releases two kinds of energies when it enters in 2p orbital -
(I). Electric potential energy
(II). Exchange energy
So when we ionize nitrogen, the electron must gain all the energy that it has released before coming out and it gains electric potential energy by using the supplied energy through breaking the bond between the nucleus and itself but in what form and how it gains exchange energy. This means when an electron gets exchange energy does it stop
exchanging its position or does anything else happens to the electron after getting back exchange energy?
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