The stability of peroxides and superoxides of alkali metals increases as we go down the group. Explain giving reasons.

(N/A) The stability of peroxides and superoxides increases as the size of the alkali metal cation increases down the group.
This is because larger cations are more effective at stabilizing the large,highly polarizable peroxide $(O_{2}^{2-})$ and superoxide $(O_{2}^{-})$ anions through lattice energy effects.
As the size of the metal cation increases from $Li^{+}$ to $Cs^{+}$,the lattice energy of the resulting ionic compounds becomes more favorable for these larger anions.
For example,the stability order for superoxides is $KO_{2} < RbO_{2} < CsO_{2}$.