Question

You and several novice researchers decide to set up some experiments in an attempt to explain why potassium reacts with oxygen to form a superoxide. One of your team members proposes that potassium's capacity to form a superoxide compound is related to a low value for the first ionization energy. If you wanted to validate this hypothesis, indicate two metals other than potassium (in order of increasing atomic number) that you could examine to see if they also form superoxides when reacted with oxygen gas.
Required:
Express your answers as chemical symbols separated by a comma.

Answer 1

Answer:

Rubidium and cesium

Explanation:

It is noteworthy to say here that larger cations have more stable superoxides. This goes a long way to show that large cations are stabilized by large cations.

Let us consider the main point of the question. We are told in the question that the reason why potassium reacts with oxygen to form a superoxide is because of its low value of first ionization energy.

The implication of this is that, the other two metals that can be examined to prove this point must have lower first ionization energy than potassium. Potassium has a first ionization energy of 419 KJmol-1, rubidium has a first ionization energy of 403 KJ mol-1 and ceasium has a first ionization energy of 376 KJmol-1.

Hence, if we want to validate the hypothesis that potassium's capacity to form a superoxide compound is related to a low value for the first ionization energy, we must also consider the elements rubidium and cesium whose first ionization energies are lower than that of potassium.