Question

How would you describe the trends in atomic radius of the alkali metals?

Answer 1

The metals which are present in group IA are called alkali metals and alkali metals are located in s block of the periodic table. Atomic radius is used to measure the size of the chemical elements which are present in the periodic table.

Complete answer:
- In the question it is asked to describe the trends of the atomic radius of the alkali metals.
- The elements which are present in the group IA are lithium (Li), sodium (Na), potassium (K), Rubidium (Rb) and Cesium (Cs).
- As we move from top to bottom in the periodic table the number of electrons added to the new orbitals of the atoms increases.
- Means the atoms will get large in size because of the adding of new electrons to the new orbitals.
- Therefore as we are moving from top to bottom in the periodic table the atomic size of the alkali metals are going to increase.
- We can observe the same trend in all the groups in the periodic table.
- As the size of the atoms increases the electronegativity of the atoms decreases from top to bottom in the periodic table.

Note: The electronegativity of the atoms will increase as we are moving from left to right in the periodic table and the electropositivity of the atoms will decrease as we are moving from left to right in the periodic table.