What metals are relatively volatile and why?
1 Answer
The most volatile liquid is mercury
Explanation:
Mercury is the only metal that is a liquid at room temperature.
It has weak intermolecular forces and therefore a relatively high vapour pressure (0.25 Pa at 25 °C).
Mercury hangs on to its
The attractive forces are so weak that mercury melts at -39 °C.
The
The relativistic effects make these electrons behave as if they were much more massive than slower electrons.
The increased mass causes them to spend more time close to the nucleus, so the
Next to mercury, the most volatile metals are the heavier alkali metals.
Whereas mercury has a vapour pressure of 1 Pa at 42 °C, cesium has a vapor pressure of 1 Pa at 144 °C.
The alkali metals have only one