The s-block of the periodic table of elements consists of the first two groups: the alkali metals and alkaline earth metals, plus hydrogen and helium.
These elements are distinguished by the property that in the atomic ground state, the highest-energy electron is in an s-orbital. Except in hydrogen and helium, these electrons are very easily lost to form positive ions. The helium configuration is chemically exceedingly stable and thus helium has ...
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The s-block of the periodic table of elements consists of the first two groups: the alkali metals and alkaline earth metals, plus hydrogen and helium.
These elements are distinguished by the property that in the atomic ground state, the highest-energy electron is in an s-orbital. Except in hydrogen and helium, these electrons are very easily lost to form positive ions. The helium configuration is chemically exceedingly stable and thus helium has no known stable compounds; thus it is generally grouped with the noble gases.
The other elements of the s-block are all extremely powerful reducing agents, so much so that they never occur naturally in the free state. The metallic forms of these elements can only be extracted by electrolysis of a molten salt, since water is much more easily reduced to hydrogen than the ions of these metals. Sir Humphry Davy, in 1807 and 1808, was the first to isolate all of these metals except lithium, beryllium, rubidium and caesium. Beryllium was isolated...
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