The alkali metals are a group of chemical elements in the periodic table with very similar properties: they are all shiny, soft, silvery, highly reactive metals at standard temperature and pressure and readily lose their outermost electron to form cations with charge + 1.

In the modern IUPAC nomenclature, the alkali metals comprise the group 1 elements, excluding hydrogen ( H ), which is nominally a group 1 element but not normally considered to be an alkali metal as it rarely exhibits behaviour comparable to that of the alkali metals.

All the alkali metals react with water, with the heavier alkali metals reacting more vigorously than the lighter ones.

The alkali metals are lithium ( Li ), sodium ( Na ), potassium ( K ), rubidium ( Rb ), caesium ( Cs ), and francium ( Fr ).

This group lies in the s-block of the periodic table as all alkali metals have their outermost electron in an s-orbital.

All the discovered alkali metals occur in nature.

Most alkali metals have many different applications.

Series of alkali metals, stored in mineral oil to prevent oxidation.

Chemically, astatine behaves more or less as a halogen, being expected to form ionic astatides with alkali or alkaline earth metals ; it is known to form covalent compounds with nonmetals, including other halogens.

Alkali salts are soluble hydroxides of alkali metals and alkali earth metals, of which common examples are:

The version of this classification used in the periodic tables presented here includes: actinides, alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, halogens, lanthanides, post-transition metals ( or " other metals "), metalloids, noble gases, nonmetals ( or " other nonmetals "), and transition metals.

He is probably best remembered today for his discoveries of several alkali and alkaline earth metals, as well as contributions to the discoveries of the elemental nature of chlorine and iodine.

The best performance ( in terms of thrust efficiency and power-to-thrust ratio ) can be obtained using high atomic weight alkali metals, such as cesium and rubidium ( 133 amu for Cs, 85. 5 amu for Rb ).

Moreover, alkali metals have the lowest attitude to form ionized droplets or multiply-charged ions, thus leading to the best attainable mass efficiency.

* Magnesium hydroxide is an example of an atypical alkali since it has low solubility in water ( although the dissolved portion is considered a strong base due to complete dissociation of its ions ).

Some structures are adopted by a number of compounds ; for example, the structure of the rock salt sodium chloride is also adopted by many alkali halides, and binary oxides such as MgO.

A common example of a feldsapthoid is nepheline (( Na, K ) AlSiO < sub > 4 </ sub >); compared to alkali feldspar, nepheline has an Al < sub > 2 </ sub > O < sub > 3 </ sub >: SiO < sub > 2 </ sub > ratio of 1: 2, as opposed to 1: 6 in the feldspar.

For example, a pigment that is used to color glass must have very high heat stability in order to survive the manufacturing process ; but, suspended in the glass vehicle, its resistance to alkali or acidic materials is not an issue.

Salts of butanol are chemical intermediates ; for example alkali metal salts of tert-butanol are tert-butoxides.

For example, unlike the other alkali metals the smallest one, lithium, does not form alums, and there is only one known sodium alum.

Ordinary dishwashing detergent, for example, will promote water penetration in soil, but the effect would last only a few days ( many standard laundry detergent powders contain levels of chemicals such as alkali and chelating agents that can be damaging to plants and should not be applied to soils ).

An alkali is a special example of a base, where in an aqueous environment, hydroxide ions are donated.

The types of glass fiber most commonly used are mainly E-glass ( alumino-borosilicate glass with less than 1 % w / w alkali oxides, mainly used for glass-reinforced plastics ), but also A-glass ( alkali-lime glass with little or no boron oxide ), E-CR-glass ( alumino-lime silicate with less than 1 % w / w alkali oxides, has high acid resistance ), C-glass ( alkali-lime glass with high boron oxide content, used for example for glass staple fibers ), D-glass ( borosilicate glass with high dielectric constant ), R-glass ( alumino silicate glass without MgO and CaO with high mechanical requirements ), and S-glass ( alumino silicate glass without CaO but with high MgO content with high tensile strength ).

The elements in period 2 often have the most extreme properties in their respective groups ; for example, fluorine is the most reactive halogen, neon is the most inert noble gas, and lithium is the least reactive alkali metal.

Alternative pollinators, such as for example, leafcutter and alkali bees in alfalfa pollination and bumblebees in greenhouses for tomatoes are used to augment and in some cases replace honey bees.

Inorganic scintillators are usually crystals grown in high temperature furnaces, for example, alkali metal halides, often with a small amount of activator impurity.

In fact, the rate of reaction of alkali metals ( as evidenced by their reaction with water for example ) is a function not only of position within the group but particle size ; and hydrogen will not react with oxygen even though the equilibrium constant is very large unless a flame initiates the radical reaction which leads to an explosion.

For example, the glycone and aglycone portions can be chemically separated by hydrolysis in the presence of acid and can be hydrolyzed by alkali.

Thus, alkali metal salts of imides are well known, a well known example being potassium phthalimide.

Potential calcination is that brought about by potential fire, such as corrosive chemicals ; for example, gold was calcined in a reverberatory furnace with mercury and sal ammoniac ; silver with common salt and alkali salt ; copper with salt and sulfur ; iron with sal ammoniac and vinegar ; tin with antimony ; lead with sulfur ; and mercury with aqua fortis.

Take the alkali feldspar minerals for example, whose end members are albite, NaAlSi < sub > 3 </ sub > O < sub > 8 </ sub > and microcline, KAlSi < sub > 3 </ sub > O < sub > 8 </ sub >.

For example, lead ( II ) oxide ( PbO ) dissolves in alkali to form salts containing the anion:

Experiments have been conducted to attempt the synthesis of ununennium ( Uue ), which is likely to be the next member of the group, but they have all met with failure .< ref name =" link "> However, ununennium may not be an alkali metal due to relativistic effects, which are predicted to have a large influence on the chemical properties of superheavy elements.

Salt-like carbides are composed of highly electropositive elements such as the alkali metals, alkaline earths, and group 3 metals including scandium, yttrium and lanthanum.

It belongs to the alkali metal group of chemical elements.

Rubidium is a soft, silvery-white metallic element of the alkali metal group, with an atomic mass of 85. 4678.

Similar to other alkali metals, rubidium metal reacts violently with water, forms amalgams with mercury and alloys with gold, iron, caesium, sodium, and potassium, but not lithium ( despite the fact that rubidium and lithium are in the same group ).

For instance, the radii generally decrease along each period ( row ) of the table, from the alkali metals to the noble gases ; and increase down each group ( column ).

Hydrogen could be placed in the alkali metals group as well as in the halogens group.

For instance, the radii generally decrease along each period ( row ) of the table, from the alkali metals to the noble gases ; and increase down each group ( column ).

Zintl compounds feature naked anionic clusters that are generated by reduction of heavy main group p elements, mostly metals or semimetals, with alkali metals, often as a solution in anhydrous liquid ammonia or ethylenediamine.

The 4-acetyl group could easily be reduced to a 4-ethyl group by use of the Wolff-Kishner reduction ( hydrazine and alkali, heated ); hydrogenolysis, or the use of diborane.

The cations are mostly of the alkali metal group.