<p>Oxygen has a smaller first ionization energy than fluorine.</p>
<p>True or false? I thought true, Sparknotes said false.</p>
<p>Definitely, definitely true.</p>
<p>All of the exceptions to the trend in first ionization energies lie in groups 2 and 3, and in groups 15 and 16, of the periodic table. This can be explained fairly simply by examining the quantum orbitals of the atoms in question.</p>
<p>Thanks! Yeah, oxygen has that p4 electronic configuration so it really wants to lose an electron to achieve a stable p3 configuration…I’m pretty solid when it comes to the periodic table, so I was really confused seeing Sparknotes’ answer lol</p>