Question

All compounds of alkali metals are easily soluble in water but lithium compounds are more soluble in organic solvents. Explain.

Answer 1

$L{i}^{+1}$ has the smallest size among all the alkali metal ions. Due to its smaller size it has very high polarising power(polarising power=charge/radius). So lithium compounds are covalent in nature(according to fajan's rule). Other alkali metals are ionic compounds. So they are readily soluble in water. But as the lithium compounds are predominantly covalent so they dissolve in organic solvents like alcohol and ether.