Question

Do all alkaline earth metals react with water?

Answer 1

The alkaline earth metal reacts with water in the following ways:

1. Alkaline earth metals are the metals placed in the second group of the periodic table.
2. The elements which belong to alkaline earth metals are Beryllium $\left(\mathrm{Be}\right)$, Magnesium $\left(\mathrm{Mg}\right)$, Calcium $\left(\mathrm{Ca}\right)$, Strontium $\left(\mathrm{Sr}\right)$, Barium $\left(\mathrm{Ba}\right)$ and Radium $\left(\mathrm{Ra}\right)$.
3. Metals react with water to produce hydrogen gas and metal hydroxide. This is explained through following chemical equation:
4. $\mathrm{M}+2{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}\underset{}{\overset{}{\to }}\mathrm{M}{\left(\mathrm{OH}\right)}_2+{\mathrm{H}}_2$, where $\mathrm{M}=\mathrm{Mg},\mathrm{Ca},\mathrm{Sr},\mathrm{Ba}$
5. Some of the examples shown are: $$\begin{gathered} \mathrm{Mg}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)+2{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}\left(\mathrm{l}\right)\underset{}{\overset{}{\to }}\mathrm{Mg}{\left(\mathrm{OH}\right)}_2\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)+{\mathrm{H}}_2\left(\mathrm{g}\right) \\ \mathrm{Ca}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)+2{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}\left(\mathrm{l}\right)\underset{}{\overset{}{\to }}\mathrm{Ca}{\left(\mathrm{OH}\right)}_2\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)+{\mathrm{H}}_2\left(\mathrm{g}\right) \end{gathered}$$
6. But among all the alkaline earth metals beryllium does not react with water.
7. This is so because being smaller in size the ionization energy of beryllium is very high, which makes it difficult to react with water.
8. Hence, all the alkaline earth metals except beryllium react with water.

The above points and chemical equation clearly explains the reaction of alkaline earth metal and water.