Does group 1 in the periodic table loose or gain electrons when it reacts?
If you are asking this question, it is likely you haven’t understood the basics. Look at the outer orbit electron structure. The clue is for any element HAPPINESS IS A FULL OUTER ORBIT. Elements achieve this by exchanging or sharing electrons. So for Group 1, one outer orbit electron, it is easiest to give away that one electron and expose the full outer shell of electrons underneath. This is very stable. So what would a group one element give its electron to? Well group 7 eg chlorine has 7 electrons in the outer orbit, one short of being full and HAPPY! So the group 1 electron could do that. A group 6 element is two electrons short of a full orbit, so if each Na [group1] can give one electron, then two Na are needed, hence sodium oxide is Na2O. The elements feeling happy is just nonsense, it is stability. However it helps U to understand and remember. If you’ve followed, U won’t need my help for the other groups from 1-8.
