When the news broke that a car loaded with sodium was burning, people wondered why firefighters were not using water to curtail it. When water is added to sodium or potassium, it will burst into flames. Group I metals, also known as alkali metals, are very reactive and can form reactions quickly. Sodium and potassium are in that group. The members of the group are sodium, potassium, cesium, and rubidium, along with Francium. Francium is highly reactive and no chemist has found a way to work with it yet.
Key Takeaways:
- Group I metals like sodium and potassium are very reactive and this is why they are not found in nature but as salts.
- How elements interact and react with each other depends on their ability to lose and gain electrons to make new compounds.
“By studying the behavior and trends of Group I elements, we can get a glimpse of how the periodic table is arranged and how to interpret it.”
