Question

How many ionization energies can carbon theoretically have?

Answer 1

Hint : the electronic configuration of carbon is $1{s^2}2{s^2}2{p^2}$ . This means it has $6$ electron in its shells. So carbon can have $6$ ionization energies. Ionization energy is the energy required to remove the last electron in the orbital of an atom. When the last electron is removed the previously second last electron becomes the last, so the second time this will be removed and so on.

Complete Step By Step Answer:
Ionization energy is the energy that is required to remove an electron from the outermost shell of an atom. The electrons are removed to a point where it is no longer associated with that atom. It measures the tendency of a neutral atom to resist the loss of electrons. Ionization energies of an atom help to predict the strength of the chemical bonds of that particular atom.
Normally if the electrons are far away from the nucleus then it is easier to remove that electron. The larger the radius of an atom, the smaller is the ionization energy. Ionization energy also helps in understanding the behavior of whether the atoms will form covalent bonds or ionic bonds with each other. It is usually seen that the elements that are far away in the periodic table combine to form ionic bonds and the ones that reside close to each other form covalent bonds.
Now we come to the number of ionization energies carbon theoretically has. It is known that single carbon has only $6$ electrons in its shells. If we remove each electron one by one then $6$ ionization energies will be required. Therefore carbon theoretically has $6$ ionization energies.

Note :
Ionization energies are dependent upon the atomic radius. Since going from right to left on the periodic table, the atomic radius increases and the ionization energy increases from left to right in the period. Some atoms have completely filled orbitals; their ionization energies are higher than others. It requires more energy to remove an electron from its orbitals.