Rubidium ionization energy

The ionization energy of rubidium is 403 kj/mol. Do X-rays with a wavelength of 85 nm have sufficient energy to ionize rubidium ... 

E1.4 Both rubidium and silver are in period 5 hence their valence electrons are in their respective 5s atomic orbitals. If we place hydrogen s valence electron in 5s orbital, the ionization energy would be ... 

The first ionization energies of sodium, potassium and rubidium atoms are 5.14, 4.34 and 4.17 eV, respectively. Use equation (7.37) to calculate the effective nuclear charge experienced by the outermost s electron in each of these atoms. 

Controlled oxidation of mixtures of both rubidium and cesium metals leads under equilibrium conditions only to the cesium clusters CsnOa in the form of the compounds [CsnOaJCsio-xRbx, [CsnOajRbv-xCSx, or [CsiiOajCsi-xRbx. Only after the consumption of all the cesium can the rubidium partially replace the cesium in the clusters. This feature indicates the presence of equilibria between actual chemical species with different relative thermodynamic stabilities. The ionization energy of cesium is lower than that of rubidium. This feature appears to be determinant in the relative stability of the suboxides, higher for CsuOa than for Rb902, deduced from the experiments discussed above. 

There is a slight irregularity in these properties at rubidium, the first element after the first row of transition metals. For example, note that the ionization energy decreases less on going from potassium to rubidium as compared with any other pair of elements in the group. 

Energy level diagrams for the easily excited atomic lines of lithium, sodium, potassium and rubidium. Wavelengths are given in nanometres for the spectral lines produced by transitions between the different levels. The ionization potential is indicated by the dashed line above the respective diagrams. 

Since both krypton and rubidium atoms are ionized with the same radiation, we can calculate the energy of one photon emitted from the helium discharge lamp ... 

Figure 9. Electric field modified potential energy diagram for rubidium showing the onset of field ionization of high Rydberg states.

Using a modulated photon beam and a detector to measure only ionization produced at the modulation frequency, Lee and Mahan were able to show from the phase shift involved that both (48) and (49) occur. The associative ionization reaction (48) was found in cesium to occur for absorbed photons whose energy was within 0.70 eV of the atomic ionization potential, that is, for the states of cesium in which the excited electron is in the 8P, 9P, lOP,. .. levels. However, reaction (49), which we call collisional electron release, is observed only for cesium atoms in the 12P, 13P, 14P,... levels, and thus has a threshold energy that lies only within about 0.2 eV from the atomic ionization potential. Similar results were observed for rubidium and potassium, namely that collisional electron release occurs in addition to associative ionization, but does so only for states of the atoms lying much closer to the ionization continum than is the case for the latter process. 

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