Metals,Nonmetals,Metalloids

NOTE: To change images on this slide, select a picture and delete it. Then click the Insert Picture icon in the placeholder to insert your own image. Using the periodic table, you can classify the elements in many ways. One useful way is by metals, nonmetals, and metalloids. Most of the elements on the periodic table are classified as metals.

Metals

In the periodic table, you can see a stair-stepped line starting at Boron (B), atomic number 5, and going all the way down to Polonium (Po), atomic number 84. Except for Germanium (Ge) and Antimony (Sb), all the elements to the left of that line can be classified as metals. These metals have properties that you normally associate with the metals you encounter in everyday life: They are solid (with the exception of mercury, Hg, a liquid). They are shiny, good conductors of electricity and heat. They are ductile (they can be drawn into thin wires). They are malleable (they can be easily hammered into very thin sheets). All these metals tend to lose electrons easily. The following figure shows the metals.

Nonmetals There are nonmetals in Group 1 and in Group 14-18. The families containing nonmetals include the Carbon family,the nitrogen family,the oxygen family,the halogen family, the noble gases, and hydrogen. In group 14, only is carbon is nonmetal The nitrogen family contains 2 nonmetals – nitrogen and phosphorus. In nature, nitrogen is found as a diatomic molecule, or a molecule consisting of two of the same atoms bonded together. The oxygen family contains three nonmetals- oxygen,sulfur and selenium

Nonmetals The halogens are in group 17 nonmetals fluorine, cholorine, bromine and iodine. All of the halogens are very reactive;fluorine is the most reactive of all the elements. The noble gases are elements are elements in Group 18. They are usually nonreactive. The chemical properties of hydrogen are very different from those of the other elements, so it cannot be grouped with any family.

Metalloids Elements that have some properties of metals and some of nonmetals are called metalloids. All metalloids are solid at room temperature, and are brittle, hard and somewhat reactive. Metalloids such as silicon, germanium, and arsenic are used to make semiconductors, which are substances that conduct electric current under some conditions but not under others.