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Arsenic is unique among the trace metalloids and oxyanion-forming trace metals (e.g. As, Se, Sb, Mo, V, Cr, U, Re). It is sensitive to mobilization at pH values typical of natural waters (pH 6.5–8.5) under both oxidizing and reducing conditions.
Metals are said to be fusible, resulting in some confusion in old chemistry as to whether arsenic was a true metal, or a nonmetal, or something in-between. It sublimes rather than melts at standard atmospheric pressure , like the nonmetals carbon and red phosphorus .
The elements commonly classified as metalloids are boron, silicon, germanium, arsenic, antimony and tellurium. [n 4] The status of polonium and astatine is not settled. Most authors recognise one or the other, or both, as metalloids; Herman, Hoffmann and Ashcroft, on the basis of relativistic modelling, predict astatine will be a monatomic metal.
A metalloid is an element that possesses a preponderance of properties in between, or that are a mixture of, those of metals and nonmetals, and which is therefore hard to classify as either a metal or a nonmetal. This is a generic definition that draws on metalloid attributes consistently cited in the literature.
Arsenic is a moderately hard (MH 3.5) and brittle semi-metallic element. It is commonly regarded as a metalloid, or by some other authors as either a metal or a non-metal. It exhibits poor electrical conductivity which, like a metal, decreases with temperature. It has a relatively open and partially covalent crystalline structure (BCN 3+3).
Arsenic is a poor oxidising agent (As + 3e → AsH 3 = –0.22 at pH 0). As a metalloid, its chemistry is largely covalent in nature, noting it can form brittle alloys with metals, and has an extensive organometallic chemistry. Most alloys of arsenic with metals lack metallic or semimetallic conductivity.
The pnictogens exemplify the transition from nonmetal to metal going down the periodic table: a gaseous diatomic nonmetal (N), two elements displaying many allotropes of varying conductivities and structures (P and As), and then at least two elements that only form metallic structures in bulk (Sb and Bi; probably Mc as well).
Gray, or metallic arsenic, pictured under an argon atmosphere. Gray arsenic, also called grey arsenic or metallic arsenic, is the most stable allotrope of the element at room temperature, and as such is its most common form. [1] This soft, brittle allotrope of arsenic has a steel gray, metallic color, and is a good conductor. [2]