Skip to main content Skip to main content

Chemistry: Challenges and Solutions

The Reactivity of Alkali Metals Explained (animation)

All the alkali metals—lithium, sodium, potassium, and so on—have only one electron in their valence shell. Because this one electron is likely to be far from the nucleus, it feels little attraction to the atom. The result: Alkali metals tend to lose this electron when they participate in reactions. These elements all “look” similar from the perspective of a reacting partner—the only difference is which shell is the valence shell.

Series Directory

Chemistry: Challenges and Solutions

Credits

Produced by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. 2014.
  • Closed Captioning

Units