This document summarizes the properties and uses of the elements in the periodic table. It describes the alkali metals like lithium, sodium, and potassium as soft, silvery solids that are very reactive and discusses their common uses. It also summarizes the properties and members of other families like the alkaline earth metals, boron family, carbon group, nitrogen group, oxygen family, halogens, and noble gases. For each element, key properties, common uses, and health effects are outlined.

1. Chapter 15, Section 2

2.  Alkali Metals
 Silvery solids with low melting points
 Very reactive (tendency to combine with
other elements and react)
 As soon as they come into contact with
almost anything, including air, a violent
explosive reaction follows…
 Usually isolated when stored immersed in oil
or kerosene

3.  Lithium Li 3
 Can be sliced with a knife
 Used in Lithium batteries (positive half)
 Used in medicine for depression
 When combined with aluminum, used for sturdy
construction
 Highest heat capacity of any element (absorb
large amounts of heat with only a slight rise in
temp)

4.  Sodium Na 11
 Soft, extremely reactive
 Used in common table salt
 Nuclear reactor
 Give street lights/car lights their orange glow
 Stored under oil so won’t react with the air
 Explodes into flames when in contact with water
 6th most abundant element in Earth’s crust

5.  Potassium K 19
 Found in bananas
 Essential for plant growth
 React with air, stored under oil
 Ions give off a bright, lilac flame
 Aid in nerve function
 Too much can lead to heart attack
 Potassium chloride is used in lethal injection

6.  Rubidium Rb 37
 Scarce, hard to find
 Television/cathode ray tubes
 Cesium Cs 55
 Fiercest reaction to water
 Used in atomic clocks
 Francium Fr 87
 Unstable
 No weighable sample has ever existed

7.  Alkaline Earth Metals
 Soft metals
 Not as reactive as Group 1, but still reactive

8.  Beryllium Be 4
 Small amount in the body causes lung cancer
 soft, silvery
 used in airplane construction because it’s light
 Emeralds, aquamarine gems are a form of beryl
 Magnesium Mg 12
 Sparky, always causes reaction
 Used in laxatives, Epsom salts
 Need it for proper nutrition
 Used in bike frames

9.  Calcium Ca 20
 In your skeleton and teeth—important nutrient
 Found also in cement, chalk
 A part of marble and limestone
 5th most abundant element in Earth’s crust

10.  Strontium Sr 38
 Named after a town in Scotland
 Red color in fireworks
 Used in glass ofTV, computers

11.  Barium Ba 56
 Heavy metal
 Used with x-rays
 Used to make spark plugs
 Green color of fireworks

12.  Radium Ra 88
 Heaviest of the group
 Used in glow in the dark paint
 Name comes from Latin radius, meaning “ray”
 Discovered by Marie Curie and her husband

13. The Boron Family
 All metals except boron, which is a brittle,
black metalloid
 Used to make a variety of products

14.  Boron B 5
 Used in borax laundry detergent, boric acid
 Used in cookware
 Aluminum Al 13
 Lightweight
 Soft drink cans, cookware, siding for homes, baseball
bats
 Used in airplanes, tin cans, and foil
 Third most abundant element in the world
 Don’t’ want this in tap water!!

15.  Gallium Ga 31
 Solid metal
 Melting point so low it will melt in your hand
 Used to make computer chips
 Indium In 49
 When combined with oxygen and tin, it conducts
electricity. Used for solar cells, touch-screen
technology

16.  Thallium TI 81
 Colorless, odorless, and tasteless
 Almost impossible to detect
 Poisonous
 In the body, slips inside of cells and causes
problems

17.  The Carbon Group
 Very different from each other

18.  Carbon C 6
 Nonmetal carbon exists as diamond, graphite
 Can morph into many forms
 Form the bulk of all living matter
 Almost everything you eat is a carbon based
compound: fats, sugars, fiber
 Released from food when you breathe and in your
body waste
 Absorbed by plants and eaten again

19.  Silicon Si 14
 Second most abundant element on earth
 Make computers run (silicon chip)
 Found in sand, adhesives
 Metalloid
 Used as a semi-conductor when combined with
boron or phosphorus

20.  Germanium Ge 32
 Metalloid
 Used in electronics as semiconductor

21.  Tin Sn 50
 One of the heaviest elements in the group
 In pewter, bronze
 Can be shaped with very little effort
 Gets mixed with other metals to keep it’s shape
 Only a thin coating on “tin” cans, the rest is made
of aluminum or steel
 Used in toothpaste, shielding around nuclear
reactors,

22.  Lead Pb 82
 One of the heaviest elements in group
 Used to protect you during X-Rays
 Comes from Latin plumbum, “plumbing”
 Used in water pipes by the Romans

23.  Nitrogen Group
 Mixture of metals, nonmetals, metalloids,
solids, gases

24.  Nitrogen N 7
 Make up 80% of air
 Essential for plant life
 Very strong atom bond
 How does nitrogen become available to your
body?
 Ammonia is a gas that contains nitrogen and
hydrogen. What are other uses?

25.  Phosphorus P 15
 Comes in white and red
 White is so active it cannot be exposed to oxygen
or it will burst into flames
 The heads of matches contain the less active red
phosphorus
 Essential to life (healthy teeth and bones), part of
DNA molecule
 Most important use is fertilizers
 Used in Cola which can be used as a rust remover

26.  Arsenic As 33
 Deadly
 Found in seafood
 Antimony Sb 51
 Used in mascara
 Can induce violent vomiting and death
 Added to lead to make it harder

27.  Bismuth Bi 83
 Heaviest nonradioactive element
 Easily turn into a liquid/ used in PeptoBismol
 Melts in intense heat; used in fire alarms, water
sprinklers

28.  The Oxygen Family
 Mixture of solids, gases, nonmetals, metalloids
 Vital to many life processes
 In nature, are often found combined with metals

29.  Oxygen O 8
 20% of earth’s atmosphere
 Colorless, odorless, tasteless
 Powerhouse behind most chemical reactions on
earth.
 Made of two atoms
 Every cell in your body uses to fuel chemical reactions
 Foam is sometimes used in firefighting to keep
oxygen away from the burning item
 Ozone: form of oxygen

30.  Sulfur S 16
 Solid, yellow, nonmetal
 Used to make sulfuric acid which is a combination
of sulfur, hydrogen, oxygen
 Used to manufacture paints, fertilizers, rubber
 Stinks
 Important part of gun powder

31.  Selenium Se 34
 Conducts electricity when exposed to light so it is
used in solar cells, photographic material
 Used in copy machines
 Good for our health in small amounts

32.  Tellurium Te 52
▪ Hard to classify
▪ Cause of bad breath and body odor
 Polonium Po 84
 Used to make antistatic brushes
 Used in weapons

33.  The Halogen Group
 Nonmetals, except for astatine, which is a
radioactive metalloid
 Halogen means “salt former”
 All halogens form salts with sodium and with
the other alkali metals

34.  Fluorine F 9
 Most reactive of halogens in combining with other
elements
 Added to drinking water
 Used to formTeflon
 CFC’s that damage the ozone

35.  Chlorine Cl 17
 Green, toxic gas
 Chemical weapons
 Used to kill bacteria
 In drinking water, small amounts
 Bromine Br 35
 One of two liquids in the table
 Used in dye of the ancient Roman Empire
 Extracted from Seawater

36.  Iodine I 53
 Least reactive of the four nonmetals
 Shiny, black solid
 Made to make the liquid that is used on cuts, and
in operating rooms
 Astatine At 85
 Half-life is only 8.3 hours

37.  Nobel Gases
 Resistant to chemical reactions
 All found in atmosphere
 Rarely combine with other elements

38.  Helium He 2
 Less dense then air
 Used in balloons, blimps
 Produced in the Sun
 Will not burn, so used in welding
 Neon Ne 10
 When mixed with other elements, emits light
 What are the colors? (p. 447)

39.  Argon Ar 18
 Most abundant of the noble gases
 Inability to react with anything at all
 Used in windowpanes
 Krypton Kr 36
 Used to illuminate landing strips at airports
 Used in light bulbs when mixed with other noble
gases
 Almost completely unreactive, colorless, odorless,
and tasteless

40.  Xenon Xe 54
 Used in light bulbs
 Radon Rn 86
 Radioactive gas produced naturally as uranium
decays in rocks and soil
 If it seeps into a home, it will emit radiation and
kill people, causing lung cancer