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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. 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 ...
An alkalide is a chemical compound in which alkali metal atoms are anions (negative ions) with a charge or oxidation state of −1. Until the first discovery of alkalides in the 1970s, [1] [2] [3] alkali metals were known to appear in salts only as cations (positive ions) with a charge or oxidation state of +1. [4]
Examples of substances that are common reducing agents include hydrogen, carbon monoxide, the alkali metals, formic acid, [1] oxalic acid, [2] and sulfite compounds. In their pre-reaction states, reducers have extra electrons (that is, they are by themselves reduced) and oxidizers lack electrons (that is, they are by themselves oxidized).
Ionization energy trends plotted against the atomic number, in units eV.The ionization energy gradually increases from the alkali metals to the noble gases.The maximum ionization energy also decreases from the first to the last row in a given column, due to the increasing distance of the valence electron shell from the nucleus.
Strongly electronegative atoms (such as halogens) often have only one or two empty electron states in their valence shell, and frequently bond with other atoms or gain electrons to form anions. Weakly electronegative atoms (such as alkali metals ) have relatively few valence electrons , which can easily be lost to strongly electronegative atoms.
The reason for this is that their outermost electron shells (valence shells) are completely filled, so that they have little tendency to gain or lose electrons. They are said to acquire a noble gas configuration , or a full electron configuration .
An atom with one or two electrons fewer than a closed shell is reactive due to its tendency either to gain the missing valence electrons and form a negative ion, or else to share valence electrons and form a covalent bond. Similar to a core electron, a valence electron has the ability to absorb or release energy in the form of a photon.
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 ...