Topic summary
Monatomic ion
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Ion.
Formation of monatomic ions
Monatomic ions are formed by the gain or loss of electrons to the valence shell (the outer-most electron shell) in an atom . The inner shells of an atom are filled with electrons that are tightly bound to the positively charged atomic nucleus, and so do not participate in this kind of chemical interaction. The process of gaining or losing electrons from a neutral atom or molecule is called ionization.