3 Li Lithium 6.94
Alkali metal
Lithium 锂
[He] 2s¹
- Period 2
- Group 1
- Block s
- Solid
Electron configuration
1s² 2s¹
Orbital diagram (valence)
2s ↑
- Electrons per shell
- 2, 1
- Unpaired electrons
- 1
- Zeff (Slater)
- 1.30
Properties
- Atomic weight
- 6.94
- Electronegativity (Pauling)
- 0.98
- First ionization energy
- 520.2 kJ/mol
- Electron affinity
- 59.63 kJ/mol
- Covalent radius
- 128 pm
- van der Waals radius
- 182 pm
- Melting point
- 453.6 K
- Boiling point
- 1615 K
- Density
- 0.534 g/cm³
- Melting / boiling point
- 180.5 °C / 1341.8 °C
- Common oxidation states
- +1
- Discovered
- 1817
Natural isotopes
| Mass number A | Abundance |
|---|---|
| 6Li | 7.59 % |
| 7Li | 92.41 % |
Isotope masses: AME2020; abundances: IUPAC/CIAAW representative values.
Emission spectrum
Lithium flame · crimson
Successive ionization energies
The big jumps appear where core electrons start to be removed. Ionization energies from the NIST Atomic Spectra Database.
Lithium in the course
The lessons that discuss this element most (ranked by mentions).
- Hydrogen and the s-block The main-group elements
- Batteries: chemistry that stores charge Redox and electrochemistry
- Galvanic cells and standard electrode potentials Redox and electrochemistry
- The glass pH electrode and ion-selective electrodes Electroanalytical chemistry
- Coulometry: counting electrons, counting water Electroanalytical chemistry
Lab experiments with Lithium
Periodic trend
Group 1
Data: PubChem periodic table (public domain); atomic weights are IUPAC abridged standard values; covalent radii from Cordero et al. (2008).