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The alkali metals (lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium, caesium, and francium) are the most homogeneous column of elements in the periodic table, exhibiting very clear periodic trends. All of them are soft and extremely reactive metals, readily giving up their sole valence electron to form cations.
The alkali metals dissolve slowly in liquid ammonia, forming ammoniacal solutions of solvated metal cation M + and solvated electron e −, which react to form hydrogen gas and the alkali metal amide (MNH 2, where M represents an alkali metal): this was first noted by Humphry Davy in 1809 and rediscovered by W
A once-common use was the making of tetraethyllead and titanium metal; because of the move away from TEL and new titanium production methods, the production of sodium declined after 1970. [60] Sodium is also used as an alloying metal, an anti-scaling agent, [71] and as a reducing agent for metals when other materials are ineffective.
Rubidium is also used as an ingredient in special types of glass, in the production of superoxide by burning in oxygen, in the study of potassium ion channels in biology, and as the vapor in atomic magnetometers. [59] In particular, 87 Rb is used with other alkali metals in the development of spin-exchange relaxation-free (SERF) magnetometers. [59]
It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the least dense solid element. Like all alkali metals, lithium is highly reactive and flammable, and must be stored in vacuum, inert atmosphere, or inert liquid such as purified kerosene [7] or mineral oil. It exhibits a metallic luster.
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]
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.
Bioinorganic chemistry is a field that examines the role of metals in biology.Bioinorganic chemistry includes the study of both natural phenomena such as the behavior of metalloproteins as well as artificially introduced metals, including those that are non-essential, in medicine and toxicology.