NSCI 1322 Lecture Notes - Lecture 55: Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Lithium Carbonate, Superconductivity
12 Jan 2017
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Document Summary
The alkali metals, the elements in the first column of the periodic table except hydrogen, are all soft, silvery metals. The alkali metals are the most reactive of all metals, reacting readily with air and water. Most of the compounds of these ions are soluble in water. Because of their chemical reactivity, the group 1a elements never occur as free metals in nature. They do occur extensively in silicate minerals, which weather to form soluble compounds of the elements (particularly of sodium and potassium). These soluble compounds eventually find their way to landlocked lakes and oceans, where they concentrate. Enormous underground beds of sodium and potassium compounds formed when lakes and seas became isolated by geologic events; the water eventually evaporated, leaving solid deposits of alkali metal compounds. Commercially, sodium and potassium compounds are common, and both sodium and lithium metals are available in quantity.
