Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In the context of the periodic table a nonmetal is a chemical element that mostly lacks distinctive metallic properties. They range from colorless gases like hydrogen to shiny crystals like iodine. Physically, they are usually lighter (less dense) than elements that form metals and are often poor conductors of heat and electricity.
Some nonmetals (black P, S, and Se) are brittle solids at room temperature (although each of these also have malleable, pliable or ductile allotropes). From left to right in the periodic table, the nonmetals can be divided into the reactive nonmetals and the noble gases. The reactive nonmetals near the metalloids show some incipient metallic ...
Periodic table of the chemical elements showing the most or more commonly named sets of elements (in periodic tables), and a traditional dividing line between metals and nonmetals. The f-block actually fits between groups 2 and 3 ; it is usually shown at the foot of the table to save horizontal space.
Nonmetals have a wide range of properties, for instance the nonmetal diamond is the hardest known material, while the nonmetal molybdenum disulfide is a solid lubricants used in space. [47] There are some properties specific to them not having electrons at the Fermi energy.
These sets usually do not aim to cover the whole periodic table (as for example period does), and often overlap or have boundaries that differ between authors. Some examples: Metals and nonmetals; Metalloids – Variously-defined group of elements with properties intermediate between metals and nonmetals. In alphabetic order:
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 ...
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 s-block, with the s standing for "sharp" and azimuthal quantum number 0, is on the left side of the conventional periodic table and is composed of elements from the first two columns plus one element in the rightmost column, the nonmetals hydrogen and helium and the alkali metals (in group 1) and alkaline earth metals (group 2).