Question

Alkaline earth metals are denser than the corresponding alkali metals. Comment on the statement.

Answer 1

1.Density: Mass per unit volume of any substance is said to be the density which is expressed in $\raisebox{1ex}{$gm$}\!\left/ \!\raisebox{-1ex}{$mL$}\right.$.

2.Density of IIA group Alkaline earth metals is observed to be greater than the density of IA group Alkali metals due to the strong metallic bonding.

3. IIA group metals have 2 valence electrons in their outer most shell which involve in the metallic bonding and IA group metals have 1 valence electrons that involves in metallic bonding.

4.Due to the presence of more electrons involved in the metallic bonding in case of IIA group, they form a stronger metallic bonding and are more denser than IA group metals.

Hence, IIA metals are denser than IA metals.