# Calculating Effective Nuclear Charge using Ionization Energy

Find the effective nuclear charge of the outermost electron in sodium using its ionization energy.

Ionization energy of sodium = 5.14 eV = 8.23e-19 J
Zeff = Z - S

I tried using the equation Zeff = Z - S, but when I followed all the rules, I found

S = (8*0.85)+(2*1.00) = 8.8
Zeff = 11 - 8.8 = 2.2

but the answer in my book says that it should be 1.8, and that method didn't use the ionization energy of sodium. I need to find an equation that explains quantitatively how ionization energy relates to Zeff.

VSayantan

Redbelly98
Staff Emeritus
Homework Helper
Welcome to Physics Forums! And sorry for the delay in responding.

Up until the last 10 minutes, I was not familiar with this type of problem. After a google search, I am now familiar with two ways to solve this problem.

One way is the way you did it, but they don't seem to want that. The other way is shown here, look at the equation for Zeff:

That way does make use of the ionization potential. You'll have to use the appropriate value of n as well, of course.

VSayantan
I'm still having trouble with this problem, because E = RH (Zeff / n)2 doesn't seem to have units that cancel out. Energy is measured in Joules or eV, but RH is the only thing with units on the other side of the equation, and it has units of m-1. Or maybe I'm using the wrong value of RH... I thought it was just the Rydberg constant multiplied by 1(because it's Hydrogen). Is that incorrect?

VSayantan
Redbelly98
Staff Emeritus