Question

Briefly give the basis for Pauling's scale of electronegativity.

Answer 1

Pauling’s scale:

1. Electronegativity is the relative tendency of an element present in a covalently bonded molecule to attract the shared pair of electrons towards itself.
2. Pauling assigned arbitrary values of electronegativities for hydrogen and fluorine as 2.2 and 4, respectively.
3. Based on this the electronegativity values for other elements can be calculated using the following expression.
   (X_A − X_B) = `0.182 sqrt("E"_"AB" - ("E"_"AA" xx "E"_"BB")^(1/2))`
   Where E_AB, E_AA, and E_BB are the bond dissociation energies of AB, A_2, and B₂ molecules respectively.
   X_A and X_B are electronegativity values of A and B.