Sodium and Lithium both are alkali metals. They have some common properties, but few properties make the two elements different. Alkali metals shall donate the single valence electron to get a noble gas configuration. Hence, they are all univalent electropositive metals.
Lithium reaction with water
- Lithium-ion is the most soluble. The solubility decreases with increasing size. Solubility in water is related to the ionic nature and size.
- Smaller ions have greater charge density and can be solvated by more water molecules. This releases a higher enthalpy of hydration and makes the hydrated ions more stable.
- Solubility of Li+ > Solubility of Na+
On moving down the group, the electropositive nature increases; hence sodium is more electropositive than lithium and also the size of sodium is greater than lithium. So Sodium reacts more vigorously with water than Lithium.
