Question of Potassium and Sodium (1 Viewer)

[Danny.Khal]

Question on Potassium and Sodium

how is the atomic structure of sodium and potassium related to the difficulty of extracting them from their compounds? i need help A.S.A.P please

 

[xiao1985]

Re: Question on Potassium and Sodium

the fact that they have very low first ionisation energy, means they'd uch prefer to stay as they 1+ form, instead of uncharged, element form

 

[Bank$]

Re: Question on Potassium and Sodium

the fact that they have very low first ionisation energy, means they'd uch prefer to stay as they 1+ form, instead of uncharged, element form

<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
<o></o>
lol 100% correct but has to be in yr 11 terms:<o></o>
<o></o>
both Na and K are group 1 metals which means that they both have only one electron in the outer shell and thus are highly reactive*. A highly reactive element will form strong bonds in compounds and therefore it will be hard to extract the elements back.<o></o>
<o></o>
*when an atom has one electron in the outer shell it will almost always form a positive ion (i.e. lose that electron). In the cases with Na and K they have (relatively) small number of protons in the nucleus resulting in a loose grip on the high energy valence electron making it easy to remove (resulting in low 1st ionisation energy) and thus the element is highly reactive. <o></o>

 

[kony]

having only one electron in its valence shell means that it can easily acquire the stable configuration of 8 electrons in its outermost shell by donating away one electron. this is why it has a low first ionisation energy, and why it will generally stay as Na+ in compounds.

to extract the Na from compounds is difficult due to high second ionisation energy (which would be similar to the 1st ionisation energy of neon, which is the highest of any element)

 

[xiao1985]

2nd ionisation energy doesn't have anything to do with extracting na+ from compounds imo... to extract Na+ (in the form of Na (s) i would assume), is extremely difficult...