How to convert electronvolts to joules
- Take the value in electronvolts.
- Use the formula joules = electronvolts × 1.602176634e-19.
- For example, 1 eV is 1.602177e-19 J.
About electronvolts and joules
An electronvolt is the energy an electron gains moving through a potential difference of one volt. Since the elementary charge was fixed in 2019, 1 eV is exactly 1.602176634 × 10⁻¹⁹ joules. Multiply eV by 1.602 × 10⁻¹⁹ to get joules.
Atomic, chemical, semiconductor and particle physics use eV because the joule is far too big at that scale: photon energies, band gaps and binding energies come out as handy numbers in eV. Converting to joules is needed when those figures go into SI formulas. For keV, MeV, GeV and TeV multiply by 1,000 at each step first.
Examples
- 1 eV (one electronvolt) is 1.602177e-19 J
- 2.48 eV (a photon of 500 nm blue-green light) is 3.973398e-19 J
- 13.6 eV (the energy to ionize a hydrogen atom) is 2.17896e-18 J
- 6,500,000,000,000 eV (a proton at the LHC in 2015 to 2018, 6.5 TeV) is 0.00000104 J
Electronvolts to joules chart
| Electronvolts (eV) | Joules (J) |
|---|---|
| 0.001 | 1.602177e-22 |
| 0.01 | 1.602177e-21 |
| 0.025 | 4.005442e-21 |
| 0.1 | 1.602177e-20 |
| 0.5 | 8.010883e-20 |
| 1 | 1.602177e-19 |
| 1.1 | 1.762394e-19 |
| 1.5 | 2.403265e-19 |
| 2 | 3.204353e-19 |
| 3 | 4.80653e-19 |
| 5 | 8.010883e-19 |
| Electronvolts (eV) | Joules (J) |
|---|---|
| 10 | 1.602177e-18 |
| 13.6 | 2.17896e-18 |
| 100 | 1.602177e-17 |
| 1,000 | 1.602177e-16 |
| 10,000 | 1.602177e-15 |
| 100,000 | 1.602177e-14 |
| 511,000 | 8.187123e-14 |
| 1,000,000 | 1.602177e-13 |
| 1,000,000,000 | 1.602177e-10 |
| 1,000,000,000,000 | 1.602177e-7 |