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The chemical elements can be broadly divided into metals, metalloids, and nonmetals according to their shared physical and chemical properties.All elemental metals have a shiny appearance (at least when freshly polished); are good conductors of heat and electricity; form alloys with other metallic elements; and have at least one basic oxide.
The dividing line between metals and nonmetals can be found, in varying configurations, on some representations of the periodic table of the elements (see mini-example, right). Elements to the lower left of the line generally display increasing metallic behaviour; elements to the upper right display increasing nonmetallic behaviour.
The chemical distinctions between metals and nonmetals is connected to the attractive force between the positive nuclear charge of an individual atom and its negatively charged outer electrons. From left to right across each period of the periodic table, the nuclear charge (number of protons in the atomic nucleus ) increases. [ 69 ]
The B-subgroup metals can be subdivided into pseudo metals and hybrid metals. The pseudo metals (groups 12 and 13, including boron) are said to behave more like true metals (groups 1 to 11) than non-metals. The hybrid metals As, Sb, Bi, Te, Po, At — which other authors would call metalloids — partake about equally the properties of both.
An alternative in metallurgy is to consider various malleable alloys such as steel, aluminium alloys and similar as metals, and other materials as nonmetals; [20] fabricating metals is termed metalworking, [21] but there is no corresponding term for nonmetals. A loose definition such as this is often the common usage, but can also be inaccurate.
Nonmetals show more variability in their properties than do metals. [1] Metalloids are included here since they behave predominately as chemically weak nonmetals.. Physically, they nearly all exist as diatomic or monatomic gases, or polyatomic solids having more substantial (open-packed) forms and relatively small atomic radii, unlike metals, which are nearly all solid and close-packed, and ...
"Noble Metals. Gold, Platinum, Silver, and a few rare metals. The members of this class have little or no tendency to unite with oxygen in the free state, and when placed in water at a red heat do not alter its composition. The oxides are readily decomposed by heat in consequence of the feeble affinity between the metal and oxygen." [29]
A metalloid is a chemical element which has a preponderance of properties in between, or that are a mixture of, those of metals and nonmetals.The word metalloid comes from the Latin metallum ("metal") and the Greek oeides ("resembling in form or appearance"). [1]