![]() All the alkali metals react with water, with the heavier alkali metals reacting more vigorously than the lighter ones.Īll of the discovered alkali metals occur in nature as their compounds: in order of abundance, sodium is the most abundant, followed by potassium, lithium, rubidium, caesium, and finally francium, which is very rare due to its extremely high radioactivity francium occurs only in minute traces in nature as an intermediate step in some obscure side branches of the natural decay chains. Caesium, the fifth alkali metal, is the most reactive of all the metals. Because of their high reactivity, they must be stored under oil to prevent reaction with air, and are found naturally only in salts and never as the free elements. They can all be cut easily with a knife due to their softness, exposing a shiny surface that tarnishes rapidly in air due to oxidation by atmospheric moisture and oxygen (and in the case of lithium, nitrogen). The alkali metals are all shiny, soft, highly reactive metals at standard temperature and pressure and readily lose their outermost electron to form cations with charge +1. This family of elements is also known as the lithium family after its leading element. Indeed, the alkali metals provide the best example of group trends in properties in the periodic table, with elements exhibiting well-characterised homologous behaviour. ![]() All alkali metals have their outermost electron in an s-orbital: this shared electron configuration results in their having very similar characteristic properties. Together with hydrogen they constitute group 1, which lies in the s-block of the periodic table. The alkali metals consist of the chemical elements lithium (Li), sodium (Na), potassium (K), rubidium (Rb), caesium (Cs), and francium (Fr).
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