Alkaline earth metal
Group of chemical elements / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The alkaline earth metals are six chemical elements in group 2 of the periodic table. They are beryllium (Be), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), strontium (Sr), barium (Ba), and radium (Ra).[1] The elements have very similar properties: they are all shiny, silvery-white, somewhat reactive metals at standard temperature and pressure.[2]
Structurally, they (together with helium) have in common an outer s-orbital which is full—[2][3][4] that is, this orbital contains its full complement of two electrons, which the alkaline earth metals readily lose to form cations with charge +2, and an oxidation state of +2.[5] Helium itself is a noble gas and not an alkaline earth metal, though it is theorised to have some similarities to beryllium when forced into bonding and has sometimes been suggested to belong to group 2.[6][7][8]
All the discovered alkaline earth metals occur in nature, although radium occurs only through the decay chain of uranium and thorium and not as a primordial element.[9] There have been experiments, all unsuccessful, to try to synthesize element 120, the next potential member of the group.