General Characteristics of the Compounds of the Alkali Metals

Virtually every common compound formed by the alkali metals — oxides, hydroxides, halides, and salts of oxo-acids among them — is essentially ionic, a direct consequence of how easily these metals lose their single valence electron to form the stable $M^+$ cation. This large, low-charge cation gives alkali metal compounds their characteristic high solubility and thermal stability compared with compounds of most other metals. The sections below look, in turn, at the general behaviour of each of these compound classes — oxides/hydroxi …