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Article
Alkali metals
Article By:
Sittig, Marshall Office of Research, Project Administration, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey.
Last reviewed:February 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.022900
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- Alkali metals, published June 2014:Download PDF
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The elements of group 1 in the periodic table. Of the alkali metals, lithium differs most from the rest of the group, and tends to resemble the alkaline-earth metals (group 2 of the periodic table) in many ways. In this respect lithium behaves as do many other elements that are the first members of groups in the periodic table (see illustration); these tend to resemble the elements in the group to the right rather than those in the same group. Francium, the heaviest of the alkali-metal elements, has no stable isotopes and exists only in radioactive form. See also: Alkaline-earth metals; Isotope; Periodic table
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