Why does Potassium react more Violently than sodium ?
Sunday, May 30th, 2010 at
2:36 PM
Why does Potassium react more Violently than sodium in terms of electrons ??
Filed under: Potassium Questions
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
both have one easy to remove electron in their outer shell
but
potassium has one more shell so that electron is farther from the nucleus
therefore, even easier to remove
so
it reacts more vigorously
Why does Potassium react more Violently than sodium in terms of electrons ??
The reactivity of a metal depends on the energy needed to remove an electron from the outer shell.
Both Na and K have 1 electron in their outer shell. However, the outer shell electron in the K atom is in the 4th shell, while the outer shell electron in the Na atom is in the 3rd shell. There farther the negatively charged electron is from the positively charged protons, the weaker the attractive force holding the electron in its orbit.
The atomic radius of K = 2.03 Angstrom, and the atomic radius of Na = 1.54 Angstrom. The ionization energy is the energy needed to remove 1 electron from an atom. The IE for K is 100 Kcal/mole, and the IE for Na = 119 kcal/mole. When Na or K is reacted with H2O, H2 gas is produced. This difference of 19 kcal/mole is sufficient to produce enough heat to ignite the H2 when K reacts with H2O. When Na reacts with H2O, the Na just bounces around on top of the H2O.