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Write a chemical equation representing the second ionization energy for lithium

1 Answer

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Ionization means pulling off an electron. So the first IE means removing 1 electron from lithium:
Li --> Li+ + 1 e-

The product is a + ion because it now has one more proton than electron.

The 2nd ionization energy is removing a 2nd electron from that resulting cation:
Li+ --> Li2+ + 1e-

So the 3rd IE ???? (I bet you can figure it out now, right?)
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