Imagine, if you will, a reaction of sodium with chlorine gas. The sodium gives up a valence electron and chlorine gains one. The compound made is 1:1 Na:Cl. A similar thing happens with potassium and bromine, you get KBr.
The electron configuration of sodium is 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s1. The part up to 2p is just like the nobel gas neon. This is good because noble gas configurations are extra stable. You can write out sodium like this: Na = [Ne] 3s1 and potassium like this: K = [Kr] 4s1. Notice that both have just one electron after the noble gas in an s-orbital. Things that have valence electrons in the s-orbital are said to be in the s-block. …show more content…
The part up to 2p is just like the nobel gas neon. You can write out chlorine like this: Cl = [Ne] 3p5 and bromine like this: Br = [Kr] 4p5. Notice that both need just one electron to make the noble gas in an p-orbital. Things that have valance electrons in the p-orbital are said to be in the p-block.
Now the d-block has d-electons. You take a noble gas configuration and add d-electrons to it and the metal you get is in what is called the transition series. It is between the s-block and the p-block,
You put together the s-block on the left with the p-block on the right and the d-block in the midle (we weren't told to discuss the f-block on the bottom) and you get the periodic table. With the periodic table you can see the difference between metals and non-metals and you can predict what charges are on