Reactivity Lab Report

This purpose of the lab was to observe and compare the reactivity of the elements within groups and the reactivity of the groups themselves. The elements of each group were reacted with fire, acid (HCl or HNO3), or in deionized water. According to the observations, the most reactive group was the alkali metals. Since the alkali metals are in group 1, they only have one valence electron and can easily lose this electron. As you move towards the right of the periodic table, the number of electrons in the outer shells keeps increasing and therefore they become more stable. In other words, as the atoms fulfil their octet, they become more stable. Therefore, the reactivity of an atom depends on the number of valence electrons in the valence shell of an element.
For instance, groups 1-3 react by losing their valence electrons, the alkali metals and alkaline earth metals, and as you go move down those groups the number of increased electron shells causes the electrons to have a weak attraction for to the nucleus; therefore, they farther the electrons are from the nucleus, the easier they are to remove, which is why the elements reactivity increases as you go down groups 1-3. In regards to the observations in the lab, sodium was more reactive than lithium, which is located above sodium on the periodic table; similarly, calcium was more reactive than magnesium.
However, elements in groups 6 and 7 react by gaining electrons. The same idea applies to these elements; as you move down the groups the number of electron shells increase, which furthers electrons from the nucleus. Hence, these elements do not easily gain electrons because of the weak attraction to the nucleus. Moreover, as you move down groups 6 and 7, reactivity decreases. For example, chlorine was the most reactive than bromine and iodine, which makes sense because chlorine is placed above bromine on the periodic