The correct answer is option (C)
The energy levels of a hydrogen atom are given by the formula :
where is the energy of the -th energy level.
The ground state of hydrogen () has an energy of as mentioned, which means that it would take to ionize it (remove the electron completely) from this state, since ionization implies moving the electron to a state of zero energy.
The second excited state of hydrogen is when (as is the ground state and is the first excited state). Thus, the energy of the second excited state is :
Since ionization implies moving the electron from its current energy level to energy, the energy required to ionize the atom from this state is the absolute value of its current energy state. So, it will take to ionize a hydrogen atom from its second excited state.
So, the correct answer is Option C : .