5.6 Melting points and standard
enthalpies of atomization of metals
The melting points of the metallic elements are given in Table
5.2 and periodic trends are easily observed. The metals with
the lowest melting points are in groups 1, 12, 13 (with the
exception of Al), 14 and 15. These metals are, in general,
those that do not adopt close-packed structures in the solid
state. The particularly low melting points of the alkali
metals (and correspondingly low values of the standard
enthalpies of fusion which range from 3.0 kJ mol1 for Li
to 2.1 kJ mol1 for Cs) often give rise to interesting practical
observations. For example, when a piece of potassium is
dropped on to water, exothermic reaction 5.1 occurs, providing
enough heat energy to melt the unreacted metal; the
molten potassium continues to react vigorously.
2K þ 2H2O " 2KOH þ H2 ð5:1Þ