What does «electronegatividad» mean in Spanish?
- Electronegativity is a measure of the tendency to attract electrons. It is generally used in the context of describing the electron attraction of one species of atom (element) in a chemical bond relative to another species. A higher electronegativity number indicates a greater tendency to attract. Thus, in an electrically neutral molecule composed of two species of atoms bonded by sharing electrons, the electronegativity of an atom of one species measures its ability to attract the electrons it shares with the atom of the other species, the greater the difference in electronegativity of the two species of atoms, the more time the shared electrons spend near the more electronegative atom and the more unequal is the internal distribution of electric charge in the molecule, thus polarizing the molecule, something like a magnet with its north and south poles, the molecule as a whole remains electrically neutral. The Pauling scale (named after Nobel Prize-winning chemist Linus Pauling) is the first proposed and most widely used measure of electronegativity. On this scale, Fluorine (the most electronegative element) is assigned a value of 4.0, and Francium (the least electronegative) is assigned a value of 0.7. Mulliken electronegativity, Allred-Rochow electronegativity, Allen electronegativity and Sanderson electronegativity are other ways that have been proposed to quantify this same phenomenon.