Properties
The alkali metal halides exist as colourless crystalline solids, although as finely ground powders appear white. They melt at high temperature, usually several hundred degrees to colorless liquids. Their high melting point reflects their high lattice energies. At still higher temperatures, these liquids evaporate to give gases composed of diatomic molecules.
These compounds dissolve in polar solvents to give ionic solutions that contain highly solvated anions and cations.
The table below provides links to each of the individual articles for these compounds. The numbers beside the compounds show the electronegativity difference between the elements based on the Pauling scale. The higher the number is, the more ionic the solid is.
| Alkali Metals | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lithium | Sodium | Potassium | Rubidium | Caesium | |||
| H a l o g e n s |
Fluorine | LiF (3.0) | NaF (3.1) | KF (3.2) | RbF (3.2) | CsF (3.3) | |
| Chlorine | LiCl (2.0) | NaCl (2.1) | KCl (2.2) | RbCl (2.2) | CsCl (2.3) | ||
| Bromine | LiBr (1.8) | NaBr (1.9) | KBr (2.0) | RbBr (2.0) | CsBr (2.1) | ||
| Iodine | LiI (1.5) | NaI (1.6) | KI (1.7) | RbI (1.7) | CsI (1.8) | ||
Read more about this topic: Alkali Metal Halide
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