Answer to Question #289804 in Electricity and Magnetism for Chemistry

Question

Sufficiently strong electric fields can cause atoms to become positively ionized—that is, to lose one or more electrons. Explain how this can happen. What determines how strong the field must be to make this happen?

Answer 1

A strong enough field can tear atoms apart, because the elections are negative and the nucleus is positive. The electrons and nucleus try to move according to the field in the opposite direction. The force of interaction between the electrons and nucleus determines the strength of the field.