(once again this question is not a duplicate of any other question to my knowledge, and this should actually help alot of people trying to ionize air)
for one you can easily figure out that nitrogen is 15.58eV and oxygen is 13.6eV, but the problem is in the air nitrogen bonds with another nitrogen (N2) and oxygen bonds with another oxygen (O2). My chemistry teacher said that the 2 atoms eV dont just add up he said it shouldnt be to much more then 15.58eV. What does it add up to and what is the equation of figuring that out. I suprisingly cant find this anywhere on the internet, so an equation of some sort would help a bunch. thanks!
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Qmechanic
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There isn't a simple way to get the ionisation energy of the molecule from the ionisation energies of the atoms that make it up. You have to either do a calculation of the molecular wavefunction or of course measure it experimentally.
When commenting on one of your previous questions I gave you the experimentally measured ionisation energies for $N_2$ and $O_2$ from the NIST web site. The ionisation energy of $N_2$ molecule is $15.58$eV as described here, and the ionisation energy of the $O_2$ molecule is $12.07$eV as described here. This compares to $14.54$eV and $13.62$eV for the nitrogen and oxygen atoms respectively.
John Rennie
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