Need a study break? Cats love aluminum foil too. We still wouldn't recommend eating aluminum.
It's also fairly non-toxic so we can wrap our burritos in it and fork our food with it and not get ill. Aluminum is used to build planes and buildings because it combines strongly with other elements making very tough and durable materials. Aluminum foil, anyone? It's silvery white in color and very reflective. We're all familiar with good 'ole Al (Z = 13). Like their transition metal counterparts, these elements tend to lose (and therefore conduct) electrons fairly easily.Īluminum is one of these metals. They are also ductile and malleable, which means they can be drawn into thin wires and hammered into thin sheets. These metals are solid, shiny, and good conductors of electricity and heat, all properties that we normally associate with metals. These metals are aluminum (Al), gallium (Ga), indium (In), tin (Sn), thallium (Tl), lead (Pb), and bismuth (Bi). The p-block has its own set of metals located to the left of the metalloids. The transition metals aren't the only metals on the table. Bonding agent? This is a way of saying boron helps things stick together.īoron is used as a bonding agent in pewter.Įnough about metalloids already-let's move on and discuss their next-door neighbors, the metals. Boron is used as a bonding agent in magnets and other chemical substances. For example, antimony is used in alloys such as pewter and as a flame retardant in plastics. Metalloids (or semiconductors) are important components of electronic devices. We'll talk more about these fancy-pants devices later. Can you guess what the main component of modern electronics, phones, computers, and radios are? That's right, semiconductors. This is why metalloids are often called semiconductors, particularly germanium and silicon. Electricity and heat can travel through metalloids but not as easily as in true metals. Metalloids play an important role in our everyday lives. Boron, for example, reacts like a metal when reacting with fluorine, but reacts like a non-metal when reacting with sodium.īoron, a metalloid, turns green when put in a flame. Okay, what about reactivity? Do metalloids react the same way as their metallic neighbors or their non-metallic neighbors? The truth is, it depends on the element with which they are reacting. Silicon: shiny and silver, but it's not a metal. It's shiny and silver like a typical metal, but it is brittle and a poor conductor of electricity. This is the reason they possess some characteristics of metals and some characteristics of non-metals. The electronegativity and ionization energy values of metalloids lie in between those of metals and non-metals. For this reason, these Frankenstein-type elements are also called semimetals or semiconductors. These elements have some properties that make them metal-like and other properties that make them non-metal-like. The elements with the distinguished honor of being called a metalloid are boron (B), silicon (Si), germanium (Ge), arsenic (As), antimony (Sb), tellurium (Te), and polonium (Po). Those elements are dubbed the metalloids. Of course there are those pesky elements residing on the zigzag that don't quite fit in either category. It divides the metals on the left half of the table from the non-metals on the right side of the table. Think of it as the prime meridian of the periodic table. Have you ever wondered what that bold zigzag line is on the right side of the periodic table? Seems out of place. Instead, the p-block is split into metals, metalloids, and non-metals. In this section, dividing elements into columns is so 2000 and late. Our next stop on this chemistry train 'o fun is the p-block. So far it's been pretty straightforward: explore a column here, learn about a column there, with elements of the same column sharing similar properties. Metals, Metalloids, & Non-Metals, Oh My!It's hard to believe, but we've already navigated through a huge chunk of the periodic table.