Section 17. Alkaline Earth Metals

One current limitation of orbital-free DFT is that since only the total density is calculated, there is no way to identify contributions from electronic states of a certain angular momentum character /. This identification is exploited in non-local pseudopotentials so that electrons of different / character see different potentials, considerably improving the quality of these pseudopotentials. The orbital-free metliods thus are limited to local pseudopotentials, connecting the quality of their results to the quality of tlie available local potentials. Good local pseudopotentials are available for the alkali metals, the alkaline earth metals and aluminium [100. 101] and methods exist for obtaining them for other atoms (see section VI.2 of [97]). 

For the most part it is true to say that the chemistry of the alkali and alkaline earth metal compounds is not that of the metal ion but rather that of the anion with which the ion is associated. Where appropriate, therefore, the chemistry of these compounds will be discussed in other sections, for example nitrates with Group V compounds, sulphates with Group VI compounds, and only a few compounds will be discussed here. 

Salt Formation. Salt-forming reactions of adipic acid are those typical of carboxylic acids. Alkali metal salts and ammonium salts are water soluble alkaline earth metal salts have limited solubiUty (see Table 5). Salt formation with amines and diamines is discussed in the next section. 

When building clusters by coating the fullerenes with metal, features similar to the electronic and geometric shells found in pure metal clusters[9] are observed in the mass spectra. In the case of fullerene molecules coated with alkaline earth metals (section 3), we find that a particularly stable structure is formed... 

In this section, we will investigate the structure of clusters produced when the metal oven is filled with one of the alkaline earth metals Ca, Sr, or Ba. 

The structures observed in the mass spectra of fullerene molecules covered with alkaline earth metals, as described in the previous section, all seem to have a geometric origin, resulting in particularly stable cluster configurations every time a highly symmetrical layer of metal atoms around a central fullerene molecule was completed. When replacing the alkaline earth metals by an alkali metal (i.e., Li, Na, K, Rb, or Cs), a quite different situation arises. 

Section 20.1 deals with the processes by which these metals are obtained from their principal ores. Section 20.2 describes the reactions of the alkali and alkaline earth metals, particularly those with hydrogen, oxygen, and water. Section 20.3 considers the redox chemistry of the transition metals, their cations (e.g., Fe2+, Fe3+), and their oxoanions (e.g., Cr042-). ... 

Table 7.3 Deposition of boiler section waterside surfaces by alkaline earth metal salts, other inorganic salts, and organics. (Note Deposition can also take place in the pre-boiler section.)...

Up till now anionic mercury clusters have only existed as clearly separable structural units in alloys obtained by highly exothermic reactions between electropositive metals (preferably alkali and alkaline earth metals) and mercury. There is, however, weak evidence that some of the clusters might exist as intermediate species in liquid ammonia [13]. Cationic mercury clusters on the other hand are exclusively synthesized and crystallized by solvent reactions. Figure 2.4-2 gives an overview of the shapes of small monomeric and oligomeric anionic mercury clusters found in alkali and alkaline earth amalgams in comparison with a selection of cationic clusters. For isolated single mercury anions and extended network structures of mercury see Section 2.4.2.4. 

The importance of solvent effects has been outlined in Section 2.2.1. An illustration with some of the fluoroionophores described in this section is given in Table 2.2. For alkali and alkaline-earth metal ions, the stability constants are higher in acetonitrile than in methanol these cations are indeed hard and have a stronger affinity for oxygen atoms (hard) than for nitrogen atoms (soft). In contrast, the soft silver atom has a strong affinity for nitrogen atoms and no complexation is observed in acetonitrile, whereas complexes in methanol, ether, and 1,2-dichloromethane are formed. 

If a correlation between the nature of the various sites and their catalytic activities and/or selectivities has to be established, methods for characterizing the different basicities will be required. Therefore, in the following sections, we discuss the methods for preparation of alkaline earth metal oxides as well as the principal characterization techniques used to evaluate their basicities. 

Adsorption of a specific probe molecule on a catalyst induces changes in the vibrational spectra of surface groups and the adsorbed molecules used to characterize the nature and strength of the basic sites. The analysis of IR spectra of surface species formed by adsorption of probe molecules (e.g., CO, CO2, SO2, pyrrole, chloroform, acetonitrile, alcohols, thiols, boric acid trimethyl ether, acetylenes, ammonia, and pyridine) was reviewed critically by Lavalley (50), who concluded that there is no universally suitable probe molecule for the characterization of basic sites. This limitation results because most of the probe molecules interact with surface sites to form strongly bound complexes, which can cause irreversible changes of the surface. In this section, we review work with some of the probe molecules that are commonly used for characterizing alkaline earth metal oxides. 

Alkaline earth metal oxides have been used as solid base catalysts for a variety of organic transformations. Excellent reviews by Tanabe 4) and Hattori 2,3,7) provide detailed information about the catalytic behavior of alkaline earth metal oxides for several organic reactions of importance for industrial organic synthesis. In this section, we describe in detail reactions that have been reported recently to be catalyzed by alkaline earth metal oxides. 

As demonstrated in previous sections, unique reactivity and selectivity have been often observed in aqueous media, but one of the big issues is the stability of catalysts in water. To overcome this, efficient catalysts that are stable and can work well in aqueous media were searched for, and metal hydroxides were found. With the exception of alkaline and alkaline earth metal hydroxides, these have not... 

Such cyanide complexes are also known for several other metals. All the fer-rocyanide complexes may be considered as the salts of ferrocyanic acid H4Fe(CN)e and ferricyanide complexes are that of ferricyanic acid, H3Fe(CN)e. The iron-cyanide complexes of alkali and alkaline-earth metals are water soluble. These metals form yellow and ruby-red salts with ferro-cyanide and ferricyanide complex anions, respectively. A few of the hexa-cyanoferrate salts have found major commercial applications. Probably, the most important among them is ferric ferrocyanide, FeFe(CN)e, also known as Prussian blue. The names, formulas and the CAS registry numbers of some hexacyanoferrate complexes are given below. Prussian blue and a few other important complexes of this broad class of substances are noted briefly in the following sections ... 

In the preceding section, we treated the surface reaction of Zn nanoparticles with oxygen. Here we mention the surface reaction of metallic particles with liquid molecules. We have found that alkali and alkaline earth metals are unstable in many polar organic solvents. 

Liquid ammonia becomes conducting on dissolving small amounts of alkali or alkaline-earth metal. The dissolution is reversible no chemical reaction takes place. It follows immediately that the metal atoms dissociate into positive ions and electrons. The nature of these solvated electrons is discussed in this section. 

Earlier work in this field has been thoroughly reviewed [1,2]. However, to illustrate in a sensible and logical way the evolution from simple metal ion promotion of acyl transfer in supramolecular complexes to supramolecular catalysts capable of turnover catalysis, an account of earlier work is appropriate. The following sections present a brief overview of our earlier observations related to the influence of alkaline-earth metal ions and their complexes with crown ethers on the alcoholysis of esters and of activated amides under basic conditions. 

Equation (4.5) is also valid in this case. Reactions of this type are realized in polarography at a dropping mercury electrode, and the standard potentials can be obtained from the polarographic half-wave potentials ( 1/2)- Polarographic studies of metal ion solvation are dealt with in Section 8.2.1. Here, only the results obtained by Gritzner [3] are outlined. He was interested in the role of the HSAB concept in metal ion solvation (Section 2.2.2) and measured, in 22 different solvents, half-wave potentials for the reductions of alkali and alkaline earth metal ions, Tl+, Cu+, Ag+, Zn2+, Cd2, Cu2+ and Pb2+. He used the half-wave potential of the BCr+/BCr couple as a solvent-independent potential reference. As typical examples of the hard and soft acids, he chose K+ and Ag+, respectively, and plotted the half-wave potentials of metal ions against the half-wave potentials of K+ or against the potentials of the 0.01 M Ag+/Ag electrode. The results were as follows ... 

It is impossible in water to electrolytically deposit such active metals as alkali and alkaline earth metals on the electrodes of materials other than mercury. However, it is possible in appropriate aprotic solvents, as discussed in Section 12.6. 

The interaction of oxygen-containing acyclic ligands with alkali and alkaline earth metal cations has provided a burgeoning area of interest. In historic terms, this was preceded by the advent of crown ethers and the accompanying almost retrospective look at their acyclic precedents. This section is sub-divided into five parts simple chelates, metal complexes as ligands, podands, polypodands and sugars. 

SOLUTION Barium hydroxide is a hydroxide of an alkaline earth metal, so it is a strong base (see Section J). The equation... 

The true alkaline earth metals—calcium, strontium, and barium—are obtained either by electrolysis or by reduction with aluminum in a version of the thermite process (Section 6.8). For example,... 

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