Question

The elements which exist in liquid state at room temperature are ____________
A) Na
B) Fr
C) Hg
D) Ga

Answer 1

Hint: The metals which are present in the periodic table are generally considered to be solid in room temperature. Mercury does not have the ability to react with dilute bases and dilute acids. But it has the tendency to react with the strong oxidising acid such as concentrated sulphuric acid and concentrated nitric acid.

Complete step-by-step answer:
As I said, metals are generally solid at room temperature. the metals have the tendency to form bonds with other elements by losing electrons. The elements exist in liquid state at room temperature because they hardly share their valence electrons with other elements. The electrons in those are tightly bonded to the nucleus and thereby existing relativistic effects.

Due to this reason the electrons which present in the atom behave as if they are bigger than the slow moving electrons. This shows that the bonds present between the atom and the other atom will be weak due to which they will melt and boil quickly thereby having low melting and boiling point. These all properties are clearly exhibited by ‘Hg’ , ‘Fr’, ‘Ga’. ‘Fr’ and ‘Ga’ can attain the liquid state at room temperature or just above that because they do not easily share their electrons with others and have weak bonds, so they have low melting and boiling points. Whereas sodium can share its valence electrons thereby making a strong ionic bond.

So the correct answer is option ‘B’, option ‘C’, and option ‘D’.

Note: Sodium has a strong metallic lustre colour and has the ability to get tarnished on exposure to air. it has the tendency to get oxidised by water and hydrogen gas. It is used efficiently in making esters in organic chemistry. It is used to improve the structures of alloys and soaps.