Why does the ionization energy suddenly increase?
I assume that you are familiar with electron configurations: Sulfur: 1s2 2s 2p6 3s2 3p4 Ionization energy is the amount of energy needed to remove an electron from it’s outer shell. Every time you move down an orbital, it takes a great amount of energy to jump down from the n=2 to the n=1 energy level. For example look at the jump at 6 to 7, meaning after we remove 6 electrons, there is a huge jump which is consistent with our theory. 1s2 2s 2p6 3s2 3p4 is the ground state->after we remove 6 electrons it is 1s2 2s 2p6. You notice how we are in the n=2 (2s, 2p) energy level. When you go from 14 to 15 there is another jump. Remove 14 electrons and the new configuration is 1s2. We are now in the n=1 energy level. So pretty much every time you jump down an energy level it takes a large amount of energy to remove an electron.
