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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.
Hence, in many cases the elements of a particular group have the same valency. However, this periodic trend is not always followed for heavier elements, especially for the f-block and the transition metals. These elements show variable valency as these elements have a d-orbital as the penultimate orbital and an s-orbital as the outermost orbital.
Elements in the same group tend to show similar chemical characteristics. Vertical, horizontal and diagonal trends characterize the periodic table. Metallic character increases going down a group and from right to left across a period. Nonmetallic character increases going from the bottom left of the periodic table to the top right.
Most pure metals are either too soft, brittle, or chemically reactive for practical use. Combining different ratios of metals and other elements in alloys modifies the properties to produce desirable characteristics, for instance more ductile, harder, resistant to corrosion, or have a more desirable color and luster.
A chemical element, often simply called an element, is a type of atom which has a specific number of protons in its atomic nucleus (i.e., a specific atomic number, or Z). [ 1 ] The definitive visualisation of all 118 elements is the periodic table of the elements , whose history along the principles of the periodic law was one of the founding ...
There is an abrupt and significant reduction in physical metallic character from group 11 to group 12. [49] Their chemistry is that of main group elements. [50] A 2003 survey of chemistry books showed that they were treated as either transition metals or main group elements on about a 50/50 basis.
Recognition status, as metalloids, of some elements in the p-block of the periodic table. Percentages are median appearance frequencies in the lists of metalloids. [n 2] The staircase-shaped line is a typical example of the arbitrary metal–nonmetal dividing line found on some periodic tables.
In more specialized fields of study and applications the number of elements counted as noble metals can be smaller or larger. It is sometimes used for the three metals copper, silver, and gold which have filled d-bands, while it is often used mainly for silver and gold when discussing surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy involving metal ...