Chemistry, 04.02.2020 18:57 elliecruzriver

Which is the most reducing agent in the periodic table?

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Lithium is the best reducing agent. It is true that Francium has the lowest ionization energy, but due to its large size it has a less polarizing cations, thus it is not the best reducing agent. Lithium's relatively high ionization energy is counteracted by the large amount of energy released when the unusually small, highly polarizing Li+ cation interacts with the surrounding water molecules.

Answer from: Beth5225

Francium is further up the periodic table, so is far stronger than lithium. If you throw a gram of Francium into water, and a gram of lithium into water, the lithium will fizzle a little bit, but the Francium will explode dramatically. educing agents are all in group 1 of the periodic table, and will get stronger as you move downwards to higher atomic number. Oxidising agents are in group 17 and will get weaker as you move downwards with increasing atomic number

Answer from: Quest

answer : a model is often used to explain and make things easier to understand when any scientific topic needs to be demonstrated and explained.

as in this case where a scientist wants to use a model to present the results of his detailed scientific investigation. he should do it as it will him to make the audience understand the concept in a much better way. also, it can be changed according to new scientific understandings.

Answer from: Quest

assuming that your periodic table has eighteen columns, you should highlight the four elements in the third column from the left of the table.

explanation

neutral atoms of elements after calcium contain d electrons. the energy of d orbitals of a particular main shell lies between the energy of the s and p orbitals of the next main shell. for example, electrons in the $3d$ have energy higher than those in the $4 s$ orbital while lower than those of the $4 p$ orbital.

by the aufbau principle, electrons fill orbitals one at a time, starting from those of the lowest energy. the $4s$ orbital is therefore filled right after $3p$ orbitals and before $3 d$ orbitals.

potassium has electron configuration $[\text{ar}] 4 s^{1}$ and calcium $[\text{ar}] 4 s^{2}$ . the s orbital of a main shell holds a maximum of two electrons. the next element would thus have the electron configuration $[\text{ar}] 4 s^{2} \; 3d^{1}$ and satisfy the requirements.

a neutral atom of the element contains three electrons on top of the most recent noble gas element. it should thus be placed in the third column of the periodic table. both scandium and yttrium would satisfy the conditions. an aufbau diagram indicates that the 4f orbital is filled before the 5d. however, it appears that exceptions exists for both lanthanum and actinium. neutral atoms of the two d-block elements also demonstrate the $ns^{2} \; (n-1) p^{1}$ and should be highlighted as well.