Sodium and potassium have a lot in common. They are both chemical elements. They are both metals, in fact, they are among a series of metals known as alkali metals. Both these metals are placed in group 1 of the periodic table of elements. Both sodium and potassium have 1 valence electron, since both have only 1 electron in outer shell.
Sodium has an electronic configuration of `1s^2, 2s^2, 2p^2, 3s^1` . Potassium has an electronic configuration of `1s^2, 2s^2, 2p^6, 3s^2, 3p^6, 4s^1` . Both, sodium and potassium, tend to lose this solitary valence electron and form cations with +1 charge. These cations of sodium and potassium participate in ionic bonding process and form ionic compounds. Both sodium and potassium are highly reactive and are generally found as compounds.
Hope this helps.
No comments:
Post a Comment