Alkaline Earth Metal
The alkaline earth metals are a group of chemical elements in the periodic table with very similar properties: they are all shiny, silvery-white, somewhat reactive metals at standard temperature and pressure and readily lose their two outermost electrons to form cations with charge +2. In the modern IUPAC nomenclature, the alkaline earth metals comprise the group 2 elements.
The alkaline earth metals are beryllium (Be), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), strontium (Sr), barium (Ba), and radium (Ra). This group lies in the s-block of the periodic table as all alkaline earth metals have their outermost electron in an s-orbital.
All the discovered alkaline earth metals occur in nature. Experiments have been conducted to attempt the synthesis of unbinilium (Ubn), which is likely to be the next member of the group, but they have all met with failure. However, unbinilium may not be an alkaline earth metal due to relativistic effects, which are predicted to have a large influence on the chemical properties of superheavy elements.
Read more about Alkaline Earth Metal: Occurrence, Applications, Biological Role and Precautions, Extensions
Famous quotes containing the words earth and/or metal:
“He had killed and put to earth so many that his sword broke in two. At length he thought to himself that that was enough massacring and killing for one day, and that the rest should be allowed to escape in order to spread the news.”
—François Rabelais (1494–1553)
“There were metal detectors on the staff-room doors and Hernandez usually had a drawer full of push-daggers, nunchuks, stun-guns, knucks, boot-knives, and whatever else the detectors had picked up. Like Friday morning at a South Miami high school.”
—William Gibson (b. 1948)