Answer:
Periodic trends are specific patterns that are present in the periodic table that illustrate different aspects of a certain element, including its size and its electronic properties. Major periodic trends include: electronegativity, ionization energy, electron affinity, atomic radius, melting point, and metallic character. Periodic trends, arising from the arrangement of the periodic table, provide chemists with an invaluable tool to quickly predict an element's properties. These trends exist because of the similar atomic structure of the elements within their respective group families or periods, and because of the periodic nature of the elements.
Step-by-step explanation:
Electron Affinity:
electron affinity is the ability of an atom to accept an electron. Unlike electronegativity, electron affinity is a quantitative measurement of the energy change that occurs when an electron is added to a neutral gas atom. The more negative the electron affinity value, the higher an atom's affinity for electrons.
Electron affinity generally decreases down a group of elements because each atom is larger than the atom above it (this is the atomic radius trend, discussed below). This means that an added electron is further away from the atom's nucleus compared with its position in the smaller atom. With a larger distance between the negatively-charged electron and the positively-charged nucleus, the force of attraction is relatively weaker. Therefore, electron affinity decreases. Moving from left to right across a period, atoms become smaller as the forces of attraction become stronger. This causes the electron to move closer to the nucleus, thus increasing the electron affinity from left to right across a period.
Electron affinity increases from left to right within a period. This is caused by the decrease in atomic radius.
Electron affinity decreases from top to bottom within a group. This is caused by the increase in atomic radius.