Noble gases Group properties

Name from neos (Greek = new) the noble gas group was unknown Properties... 

Cations with noble gas configurations. The alkali metals, alkaline earths and aluminium belong to this group which exhibit Class A acceptor properties. Electrostatic forces predominate in complex formation, so interactions... 

The Group 8A elements, the noble gases, are characterized by filled s and p valence orbitals (electron configurations of 2s2 for helium and nsznp6 for the others). Because of their completed valence shells, these elements are very un-reactive. In fact, no noble gas compounds were known 50 years ago. Selected properties of the Group 8A elements are summarized in Table 19.12. 

A consideration of the previous statements leads one to expect a relatively simple substitution chemistry for the alkali ions in solution. Due to their noble gas like electron configuration, the substitution rates should show a straightforward relationship to physical properties such as charge and size. However, it is naive to assume that complex formation involving main group metal ions is an easily resolved problem. There exist several non-trivial facts, which cannot readily be explained. It is a close examination of these, which will provide some interesting insight into the mechanism of metal complex formation of alkali ions. 

Recall from Chapter 7 that elements in the same group (vertical column) of the periodic table have the same number of valence electrons, and because of this, they have similar properties. But elements in a period (horizontal row) have properties different from one another. This is because the number of valence electrons increases from one to eight as you move from left to right in any row of the periodic table except the first. As a result, the character of the elements changes. Figure 8.1 illustrates the main group elements and shows that each period begins with two or more metallic elements, which are followed by one or two metalloids. The metalloids are followed by nonmetallic elements, and every period ends with a noble gas. 

---