valence electron
Noun
Meaning
valence electron (plural valence electrons)
(chemistry) any of the electrons in the outermost shell of an atom (the valence shell); capable of forming bonds with other atoms
Hypernyms
Examples
Atoms with full valence electron shells are extremely stable and therefore do not tend to form chemical bonds and have little tendency to gain or lose electrons.
Chemical Bonding, Mark J. Winter, Oxford University Press, 1994, ISBN 0-19-855694-2 Hydrogen, like the alkali metals, has one valence electron and reacts easily with the halogens but the similarities end there.
Having one fewer valence electron than the host atom, it donates a hole resulting in p-type conductivity.
Following the same rules, the carboxylic acid carbon atom gets the other one valence electron from the C−C bond.
Lithium has a low ionization energy and readily gives up its lone valence electron to a fluorine atom, which has a positive electron affinity and accepts the electron that was donated by the lithium atom.
This lowered reactivity is due to the relativistic stabilisation of ununennium's valence electron, increasing ununennium's first ionisation energy and decreasing the metallic and ionic radii ; this effect is already seen for francium.