30-04-2021

The Most Electronegative Atom

The elements of the periodic table sorted by electronegativity

click on any element's name for further chemical properties, environmental data or health effects.

This list contains the 118 elements of chemistry.

The chemical elements of the periodic chart sorted by:	Electro- negativity	Name chemical element	Symbol	Atomic number
- Name alphabetically	0,7	Actinium	Ac	89
- Atomic number	0,79	Lanthanum	La	57
- Symbol	0,82	Potassium	K	19
- Atomic Mass	0,82	Strontium	Sr	38
- Electronegativity	0,89	Cerium	Ce	58
- Density	0,89	Thorium	Th	90
- Melting point	0,93	Sodium	Na	11
- Boiling point	0,95	Yttrium	Y	39
- Vanderwaals radius	0,98	Lithium	Li	3
- Year of discovery	1	Potassium	K	19
- Inventor surname	1,1	Praseodymium	Pr	59
- Elements in earthcrust	1,1	Protactinium	Pa	91
- Elements in human body	1,12	Neodymium	Nd	60
- Covalenz radius	1,13	Promethium	Pm	61
- Ionization energy	1,14	Samarium	Sm	62
For chemistry students and teachers: The tabular chart on the right is arranged by electronegativity. The first chemical element is Actinium and the last element is Fluorine. The unity used for the electronegativity is Pauling. Please note that the elements do not show their natural relation towards each other as in the Periodic system. There you can find the metals, semi-conductor(s), non-metal(s), inert noble gas(ses), Halogens, Lanthanoides, Actinoids (rare earth elements) and transition metals.
	1,17	Gadolinium	Gd	64
	1,2	Dysprosium	Dy	66
	1,22	Zirconium	Zr	40
	1,22	Erbium	Er	68
	1,23	Thulium	Tm	69
	1,24	Ytterbium	Yb	70
	1,25	Lutetium	Lu	71
	1,27	Tantalum	Ta	73
	1,28	Curium	Cm	96
	1,3	Tungsten	W	74
	1,3	Uranium	U	92
	1,3	Berkelium	Bk	97
	1,3	Californium	Cf	98
	1,3	Einsteinium	Es	99
	1,3	Fermium	Fm	100
	1,3	Mendelevium	Md	101
	1,3	Nobelium	No	102
	1,3	Lawrencium	Lr	103
	1,3	Rutherfordium	Rf	104
	1,3	Dubnium	Db	105
	1,31	Magnesium	Mg	12
	1,33	Niobium	Nb	41
	1,36	Calcium	Ca	20
	1,36	Americium	Am	95
	1,38	Plutonium	Pu	94
	1,5	Rhenium	Re	75
	1,5	Neptunium	Np	93
	1,54	Scandium	Sc	21
	1,55	Chromium	Cr	24
1,57	Beryllium	Be	4
1,6	Molybdenum	Mo	42
1,61	Aluminum	Al	13
1,62	Bismuth	Bi	83
1,63	Titanium	Ti	22
1,65	Copper	Cu	29
1,66	Vanadium	V	23
1,69	Indium	In	49
1,78	Tin	Sn	50
1,81	Zinc	Zn	30
1,83	Manganese	Mn	25
1,88	Iron	Fe	26
1,9	Silicon	Si	14
1,9	Nickel	Ni	28
1,9	Ruthenium	Ru	44
1,9	Iridium	Ir	77
1,91	Cobalt	Co	27
1,93	Cadmium	Cd	48
1,96	Antimony	Sb	51
2	Lead	Pb	82
2	Radon	Rn	86
2,01	Gallium	Ga	31
2,02	Astatine	At	85
2,04	Boron	B	5
2,05	Iodine	I	53
2,1	Xenon	Xe	54
2,16	Technetium	Tc	43
2,18	Arsenic	As	33
2,19	Phosphorus	P	15
2,2	Hydrogen	H	1
2,2	Rhodium	Rh	45
2,2	Silver	Ag	47
2,2	Platinum	Pt	78
2,2	Gold	Au	79
2,2	Francium	Fr	87
2,28	Palladium	Pd	46
2,28	Mercury	Hg	80
2,33	Polonium	Po	84
2,36	Osmium	Os	76
2,54	Thallium	Tl	81
2,55	Carbon	C	6
2,55	Selenium	Se	34
2,58	Sulfur	S	16
2,6	Barium	Ba	56
2,66	Cesium	Cs	55
2,96	Krypton	Kr	36
3,04	Nitrogen	N	7
3,16	Chlorine	Cl	17
3,44	Oxygen	O	8
3,98	Fluorine	F	9
Helium	He	2
Neon	Ne	10
Argon	Ar	18
Rubidium	Rb	37
Europium	Eu	63
Terbium	Tb	65
Holmium	Ho	67
Hafnium	Hf	72
Radium	Ra	88
Seaborgium	Sg	106
Bohrium	Bh	107
Hassium	Hs	108
Meitnerium	Mt	109
Darmstadtium	Ds	110
Roentgenium	Rg	111
Ununbium	Uub	112
Ununtrium	Uut	113
Ununquadium	Uuq	114
Ununpentium	Uup	115
Ununhexium	Uuh	116
Ununseptium	Uus	117
Ununoctium	Uuo	118

Electronegativity is a measure of the tendency of an atom to attract a bonding pair of electrons. The Pauling scale is the most commonly used. Fluorine (the most electronegative element) is assigned a value of 4.0, and values range down to caesium and francium which are the least electronegative at 0.7. Fluorine is the most electronegative element because the definition of electronegativity makes it so. The electronengativity scales are defined based on experimentally determined properties of the elements. Fluorine has appropriate values for all of the common scales to ensure it has the highest electronegativity. Fluorine is the most electronegative element on the periodic table. Its electronegativity value is 3.98.

We measure electronegativity on several scales. The most commonly used scale was designed by Linus Pauling. According to this scale, fluorine is the most electronegative element with a value of 4.0 and cesium is the least electronegative element with a value of 0.7. Check out the electronegativity values of elements in the electronegativity chart.

Click here: for a schematic overview of the periodic table of elements in chart form

Please report any accidental mistake in the above statistics on chemical elements

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Table Of Electronegativity

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Periodic Trends — Electronegativity

(1)

(2)

(13)

(14)

(15)

(16)

(17)

(18)

—

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

(9)

(10)

(11)

(12)

2.20

n.a.

0.98

1.57

2.04

2.55

3.04

3.44

3.98

n.a.

0.93

1.31

1.61

1.90

2.19

2.58

3.16

n.a.

0.82

1.00

1.36

1.54

1.63

1.66

1.55

1.83

1.88

1.91

1.90

1.65

1.81

2.01

2.18

2.55

2.96

3.00

0.82

0.95

1.22

1.33

1.60

2.16

1.90

2.20

2.28

2.20

1.93

1.69

1.78

1.96

2.05

2.10

2.66

2.60

0.79

0.89

1.10

1.30

1.50

2.36

1.90

2.20

2.28

2.54

2.00

1.62

2.33

2.02

2.00

2.20

n.a.

0.70

0.89

1.10

n.a.

Uub

n.a.

—

Uuq

n.a.

—

1.12

1.13

1.14

1.13

1.17

1.20

1.10

1.22

1.23

1.24

1.25

1.10

1.27

1.30

1.50

1.38

1.36

1.28

1.30

Electronegativities reported in Pauling units

Data taken from John Emsley, The Elements, 3rd edition. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998.

Electronegativity refers to the ability of an atom to attract shared electrons in a covalent bond. The higher the value of the electronegativity, the more strongly that element attracts the shared electrons.

The concept of electronegativity was introduced by Linus Pauling in 1932; on the Pauling scale, fluorine is assigned an electronegativity of 3.98, and the other elements are scaled relative to that value. Other electronegativity scales include the Mulliken scale, proposed by Robert S. Mulliken in 1934, in which the first ionization energy and electron affinity are averaged together, and the Allred-Rochow scale, which measures the electrostatic attraction between the nucleus of an atom and its valence electrons.

The most electronegative atom based on group trends

Electronegativity varies in a predictable way across the periodic table. Electronegativity increases from bottom to top in groups, and increases from left to right across periods. Thus, fluorine is the most electronegative element, while francium is one of the least electronegative. (Helium, neon, and argon are not listed in the Pauling electronegativity scale, although in the Allred-Rochow scale, helium has the highest electronegativity.) The trends are not very smooth among the transition metals and the inner transition metals, but are fairly regular for the main group elements, and can be seen in the charts below.

The difference in electronegativity between two bonded elements determines what type of bond they will form. When atoms with an electronegativity difference of greater than two units are joined together, the bond that is formed is an ionic bond, in which the more electronegative element has a negative charge, and the less electronegative element has a positive charge. (As an analogy, you can think of it as a game of tug-of-war in which one team is strong enough to pull the rope away from the other team.) For example, sodium has an electronegativity of 0.93 and chlorine has an electronegativity of 3.16, so when sodium and chlorine form an ionic bond, in which the chlorine takes an electron away from sodium, forming the sodium cation, Na⁺, and the chloride anion, Cl^-. Particular sodium and chloride ions are not 'tied' together, but they attract each other very strong because of the opposite charges, and form a strong crystal lattice.

When atoms with an electronegativity difference of less than two units are joined together, the bond that is formed is a covalent bond, in which the electrons are shared by both atoms. When two of the same atom share electrons in a covalent bond, there is no electronegativity difference between them, and the electrons in the covalent bond are shared equally — that is, there is a symmetrical distribution of electrons between the bonded atoms. These bonds are nonpolar covalent bonds. (As an analogy, you can think of it as a game of tug-of-war between two equally strong teams, in which the rope doesn't move.) For example, when two chlorine atoms are joined by a covalent bond, the electrons spend just as much time close to one chlorine atoms as they do to the other, and the resulting molecule is nonpolar:

When the electronegativity difference is between 0 and 2, the more electronegative element attracts the shared more strongly, but not strongly enough to remove the electrons completely to form an ionic compound. The electrons are shared unequally — that is, there is an unsymmetrical distribution of electrons between the bonded atoms. These bonds are called polar covalent bonds. The more electronegative atom has a partial negative charge, d^-, because the electrons spend more time closer to that atom, while the less electronegative atom has a partial positive charge, d⁺, because the electrons are partly (but not completely) pulled away from that atom. For example, in the hydrogen chloride molecule, chlorine is more electronegative than hydrogen by 0.96 electronegativity units. The shared electrons spend more time close to the chlorine atom, making the chlorine end of the molecule very slightly negative (indicated in the figure below by the blue shaded region), while the hydrogen end of the molecule is very slightly positive (indicated by the red shaded region), and the resulting molecule is polar: