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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.
All four elements tend to form primarily ionic compounds with metals, [136] in contrast to the remaining nonmetals (except for oxygen) which tend to form primarily covalent compounds with metals. [ x ] The highly reactive and strongly electronegative nature of the halogen nonmetals epitomizes nonmetallic character.
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 ...
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.
A metal may be a chemical element such as iron; an alloy such as stainless steel; or a molecular compound such as polymeric sulfur nitride. [4] The general science of metals is called metallurgy, a subtopic of materials science; aspects of the electronic and thermal properties are also within the scope of condensed matter physics and solid ...
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 nonmetals are divided into four classes that complement a four-fold division of the metals, with the noble metals treated as a subset of the transition metals. The metalloids are treated as chemically weak nonmetals, in a manner analogous to their chemically weak frontier metal counterparts.
Polar metal; Properties of metals, metalloids and nonmetals; Properties of nonmetals (and metalloids) by group; R. Radioactive scrap metal; Refractory metals; S.