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In chemistry, an alkali (/ ˈ æ l k ə l aɪ /; from the Arabic word al-qāly, القلوي) is a basic, ionic salt of an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal. An alkali can also be defined as a base that dissolves in water. A solution of a soluble base has a pH greater than 7.0.
Apart from this, the alkali metals are such strong reducing agents that they can even reduce buckminsterfullerene to produce solid fullerides M n C 60; sodium, potassium, rubidium, and caesium can form fullerides where n = 2, 3, 4, or 6, and rubidium and caesium additionally can achieve n = 1. [10]: 285
Caustic potash/caustic wood alkali – potassium hydroxide, formed by adding lime to potash. Caustic Soda/caustic marine alkali – sodium hydroxide, NaOH, formed by adding lime to natron. Caustic volatile alkali – ammonium hydroxide. Corrosive sublimate – mercuric chloride, formed by subliming mercury, calcined green vitriol, common salt ...
Alkali salts or base salts are salts that are the product of incomplete neutralization of a strong base and a weak acid. Rather than being neutral (as some other salts), alkali salts are bases as their name suggests. What makes these compounds basic is that the conjugate base from the weak acid hydrolyzes to form a basic solution.
The alkaline earth metals (Be, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, and Ra) are the second most reactive metals in the periodic table, and, like the Group 1 metals, have increasing reactivity with increasing numbers of energy levels. Beryllium (Be) is the only alkaline earth metal that does not react with water or steam, even if the metal is heated red hot. [9]
Cs > K > Na > Li > alkaline earth metals, i.e., alkali metals > alkaline earth metals, the same as the reverse order of the (gas-phase) ionization energies. This is borne out by the extraction of metallic lithium by the electrolysis of a eutectic mixture of lithium chloride and potassium chloride: lithium metal is formed at the cathode, not ...
Lithium oxide (Li 2 O) is the lightest alkali metal oxide and a white solid. It melts at 1570 °C. Sodium oxide (Na 2 O) is a white solid that melts at 1132 °C and decomposes at 1950 °C. It is a component of glass. Potassium oxide (K 2 O) is a pale yellow solid that decomposes at 350 °C.
Salts of strong acids and strong bases ("strong salts") are non-volatile and often odorless, whereas salts of either weak acids or weak bases ("weak salts") may smell like the conjugate acid (e.g., acetates like acetic acid and cyanides like hydrogen cyanide ) or the conjugate base (e.g., ammonium salts like ammonia) of the component ions.