The alkali halides are the family of ionic compounds with simple chemical formula X+Y- or XY, where X is an alkali metal and Y is a halogen. One of the most well known of these is sodium chloride or common table salt.
In standard room conditions dry alkali halides tend to exist as white or translucent crystalline solids. The internal crystalline structure is centered cubic, usually face centered cubic.
The numbers beside the compounds show the electronegativity difference between the elements based on the Pauling scale. The higher the number is, the more ionic the bond is. c The table below provides links to each of the individual articles for these compounds:
| Alkali Metals | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lithium | Sodium | Potassium | Rubidium | Caesium | |||
| H a l o g e n s |
Fluorine | LiF (3.0) | NaF (3.1) | KF (3.2) | RbF (3.2) | CsF (3.3) | |
| Chlorine | LiCl (2.0) | NaCl (2.1) | KCl (2.2) | RbCl (2.2) | CsCl (2.3) | ||
| Bromine | LiBr (1.8) | NaBr (1.9) | KBr (2.0) | RbBr (2.0) | CsBr (2.1) | ||
| Iodine | LiI (1.5) | NaI (1.6) | KI (1.7) | RbI (1.7) | CsI (1.8) | ||