Question

Fill in the blanks with suitable words

Metallic character of element -------- while moving from top to bottom.

Answer 1

Modern periodic table:

• The modern periodic table is an arrangement of all the elements known in accordance with their increasing atomic number and recurring chemical properties.
• It is a tabular display of 118 chemical elements which consists of horizontal rows called periods and vertical columns are called groups.
• All elements in a group have the same number of valance electrons, and in period elements have the same number of electron shells.
• There are seven periods and eighteen groups in the modern periodic table.

Metallic Character:

• The metallic character is the tendency of an element to lose electrons and form positive ions or cations.
• Alkali metals are the most electropositive elements.
• As the effective nuclear charge acting on the valence shell electrons increases across a period, the tendency to lose electrons will decrease so the metallic character decreases.
• Down the group, the effective nuclear charge experienced by valence electrons decreases as the electrons are far away from the nucleus. Therefore, these electrons can be lost easily so the metallic character increases down a group.

So, the Metallic character of the element increases while moving from top to bottom.