Wish I could find a video with francium

Thanks for that interesting tidbit. I'm currently taking a chemistry class + enjoying it.
Why is it reactive with water? Is it because there's only one valence electron (1s) thats in the 1st group of elements?

This post was edited by AEtheric on Jan 12 2009 09:22pm

So true.

well, lets look at the reaction...

2K (s) + 2H2O (l) → 2KOH (aq) + H2 (g)

Have you learned entropy yet? The idea that the universal natural trend is to increase the disorder.

In this reaction you are (1) turning the solid potassium into liquid and (2) turning some of the hydrogen in the liquid water into gas (this removes product and drives the reaction to completion (Le'Chatlier's principle)). This reaction follows the trend of entropy, and means the reactions favors the product (because it is more disordered). solid is more ordered than liquid, which is more ordered than gas.

Remaining in the soup of chemicals (after some H2 has left as a gas) are K+ ions and OH- ions. The remaining hydroxide makes the reaction basic (pH>7).

chemistry is fun!

This post was edited by unghghgh on Jan 12 2009 11:52pm

Thanks for that. :] Chemistry IS fun. I love going to the lab to do shit.

i have always been interested by chemistry stuff