The alkali metals are a series of elements comprising: lithium (Li), sodium (Na), potassium (K), rubidium (Rb), caesium (Cs), and francium (Fr). Note that hydrogen, although nominally placed in the same group, rarely exhibits behavior comparable to the alkali metals (Under extremely high pressure, hydrogen can become metallic and then behaves like an alkali metal).
The alkali metals are all highly reactive and tend not to be found in elemental form in nature.
Alkali metals have the lowest ionisation energy in their respective periods, as removing the single electron from the outermost shell gives them the stable noble gas configuration. But their second ionisation potentials are very high, as removing an electron from a species having a noble gas configuration is very difficult.
| Group*** Period | |||||||||||||||||||
| 1 IA 1A | 2 IIA 2A | 3 IIIB 3B | 4 IVB 4B | 5 VB 5B | 6 VIB 6B | 7 VIIB 7B | 8 VIII 8 | 9 VIII 8 | 10 VIII 8 | 11 IB 1B | 12 IIB 2B | 13 IIIA 3A | 14 IVA 4A | 15 VA 5A | 16 VIA 6A | 17 VIIA 7A | 18 VIIIA 8A | ||
| 1 | 1 H 1.008 | 2 He 4.003 | |||||||||||||||||
| 2 | 3 Li 6.941 | 4 Be 9.012 | 5 B 10.81 | 6 C 12.01 | 7 N 14.01 | 8 O 16.00 | 9 F 19.00 | 10 Ne 20.18 | |||||||||||
| 3 | 11 Na 22.99 | 12 Mg 24.31 | 13 Al 26.98 | 14 Si 28.09 | 15 P 30.97 | 16 S 32.07 | 17 Cl 35.45 | 18 Ar 39.95 | |||||||||||
| 4 | 19 K 39.10 | 20 Ca 40.08 | 21 Sc 44.96 | 22 Ti 47.88 | 23 V 50.94 | 24 | 25 | 26 Fe 55.85 | 27 Co 58.47 | 28 Ni 58.69 | 29 | 30 Zn 65.39 | 31 Ga 69.72 | 32 Ge 72.59 | 33 As 74.92 | 34 Se 78.96 | 35 Br 79.90 | 36 Kr 83.80 | |
| 5 | 37 Rb 85.47 | 38 Sr 87.62 | 39 Y 88.91 | 40 Zr 91.22 | 41 Nb 92.91 | 42 Mo 95.94 | 43 Tc (98) | 44 Ru 101.1 | 45 Rh 102.9 | 46 Pd 106.4 | 47 Ag 107.9 | 48 Cd 112.4 | 49 In 114.8 | 50 Sn 118.7 | 51 Sb 121.8 | 52 Te 127.6 | 53 I 126.9 | 54 Xe 131.3 | |
| 6 | 55 Cs 132.9 | 56 Ba 137.3 | * | 72 Hf 178.5 | 73 Ta 180.9 | 74 W 183.9 | 75 Re 186.2 | 76 Os 190.2 | 77 Ir 190.2 | 78 Pt 195.1 | 79 Au 197.0 | 80 Hg 200.5 | 81 Tl 204.4 | 82 Pb 207.2 | 83 Bi 209.0 | 84 Po (209) | 85 At (210) | 86 Rn (222) | |
| 7 | 87 Fr (223) | 88 Ra (226) | ** | 104 Rf (261) | 105 Db (262) | 106 Sg (266) | 107 Bh (264) | 108 Hs (269) | 109 Mt (268) | 110 Ds (281) | 111 Rg (272) | 112 Uub (285) | 113 Uut (284) | 114 Uuq (289) | 115 Uup (288) | 116 Uuh (292) | 117 Uus () | 118 Uuo (294) | |
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| Lanthanide Series* (Lanthanoid) | 57 La 138.9 | 58 Ce 140.1 | 59 Pr 140.9 | 60 Nd 144.2 | 61 Pm (145) | 62 Sm 150.4 | 63 Eu 152.0 | 64 Gd 157.3 | 65 Tb 158.9 | 66 Dy 162.5 | 67 Ho 164.9 | 68 Er 167.3 | 69 Tm 168.9 | 70 Yb 173.0 | 71 Lu 175.0 | ||||
| Actinide Series** (Actinoids) | 89 Ac (227) | 90 Th 232.0 | 91 Pa (231) | 92 U (238) | 93 Np (237) | 94 Pu (244) | 95 Am (243) | 96 Cm (247) | 97 Bk (247) | 98 Cf (251) | 99 Es (252) | 100 Fm (257) | 101 Md (258) | 102 No (259) | 103 Lr (262) | ||||
***Groups are by 3 notation conventions.
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