Chapter 9

Question 1

what happens to the lattice energy as you go down the row of the alkaline earth metals?

Answer 1

as the size of the alkaline metal ions increases down the column, the distance between the metal cation and the oxide anion increase. the magnitude of the lattice energy of the oxides decreases, making the formation of the oxides less exothermic and the compounds less stable. they don’t release as much energy as they get bigger because they cant get close to each other.