What are the s-block elements?

2 Answers
David Drayer
Aug 16, 2017

Group I A and IIA the alkaline metals and alkaline earth metals.

Explanation:

Group IA metals such as sodium, potassium, are elements that have valance electrons in the s orbitals.

Group II A metals such as magnesium, calcium are elements that have valance electrons in the s orbitals.

anor277
Aug 16, 2017

These are the alkali metals, and the alkaline earths.

Explanation:

And look at your Periodic Table; the leftmost COLUMN, #Li, Na,#
#K, Rb, Cs, Fr# are the alkali metals; i.e. this is Group 1 of the Periodic Table, whose members have a single VALENCE electron, i.e. #"s-electrons"#.

And the second-most column, Group 2, the so-called alkaline earths, #Be, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, Ra#, have a complete #"s-valence"# shell. And thus both the Group 1 and Group 2 elements constitute the #"s-block"#.

Hydrogen, #Z=1#, is a bit of a special case. Its metallic properties are only manifested under special circumstances, and many Periodic Tables offset hydrogen from the alkali metals.

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