Question

Why do halogens show a high tendency to make compounds with alkali metals and alkali earth metals

Answer 1

Elements such as fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, and astatine belong to Group 17, the halogen group. All the halogens exist asdiatomic molecules. They have high ionization energies and form the most electronegative group of elements. Their electron configuration,ns2np5, allows them to easily react with Group 1 and 2 metals; each halogen tends to pick up one electron, and the Group 1 and Group 2 elements each tend to lose one or two electrons, respectively. Halogens therefore react most vigorously with Group 1 and Group 2 metals of all main group elements. 1)TheAlkali Metals

All thealkali metals reactvigorously with halogens to produce salts, the most industrially important of which areNaCl and KCl. 2Na(s)+Cl2(g)→2NaCl(s) They will easily lose an electron so that halogen can react with it. 2)The Alkaline Earth Metals

The alkaline earth metalsreact to form hydrated halides. These halides are ionic except for those involving beryllium (theleast metallic of the group). Because alkaline earth metals tend to loseelectronsand halogen atoms tend to gain electrons , the chemical reaction between these groups is the following:

M+X2→MX2

where

• M representsany metal from Group 2 and
• Xrepresents fluorine, chlorine, bromine or iodine.