Change Of Atomic Radius:
The atomic radius of elements increases by one electron shell in every element bellow . For example beryllium has 2 electron shells, magnesium has 3 electron shells and calcium has 4 electron shells.
Reactivity:
Alkaline earth metals are high in reactivity series of metals, but alkali metals are more reactive.
Uses of Alkaline Earth Metals:
Beryllium is a very difficult to be extracted from ores , therefore is only used in certain items such as windows for x-ray tubes.
Magnesium is the only element in group 2 that is used on a large scale. It’s used in tracers, flares, and flammable bombs. Magnesium is used to make car engines, pencil sharpeners, and many electronic devices such as laptops, and cell phones. It’s mixed with aluminium to produce a strong material used in aircrafts.
Calcium is used in constructions and found in milk, cheese and dairy products.
Strontium is used in fireworks (it produces scarlet flame colour) and it’s combined with chloride to make sensitive teeth toothpaste.
Barium is mixed with sulphate to be used for radiocontrast agent for X-ray imaging of the digestive system.
Radium is used to produce radon gases (used for cancer treatments), neutron sources, luminous paints, and medical radioisotopes.
Melting and Boiling points:
The boiling and melting point does not have a consistent rate, it decreases and increases in every other element.
| Element | Boiling point | Melting point |
| Be | 2742K | 1560K |
| Mg | 1363K | 923K |
| Ca | 1757K | 1115K |
| Sr | 1655K | 1655K |
| Ba | 1000K | 1000K |
| Ra | 973K | 973K |
Location on the periodic table:
Alkaline earth metals are located in the second group because all of the element in that group have 2 electrons on the outer shell.
Abundance on Earth:
Beryllium is not very common because it’s very difficult to extract from ores, the man made beryllium is not always available. Magnesium is the 11th most common element in the human body, magnesium ions are found 50% in bones. Calcium is a very common element, it’s found in milk and dairy products. Strontium is the 15th most common abundant element on Earth, it’s usually found in the mineral celestite. Barium is not a very common element because it cannot be found easily in nature because of its reaction to air, pure Barium can be found and removed from the mineral barite. Radium is common element, because of it’s uses but radium can be very harmful; it’s a decay product of uranium.
