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Nonmetals are chemical elements that mostly lack distinctive metallic properties. They range from colorless gases like hydrogen to shiny crystals like iodine. Physically, they are usually lighter (less dense) than metals; brittle or crumbly if solid; and often poor conductors of heat and electricity.
Apr 28, 2024 · A nonmetal is a chemical element that mostly lacks metallic attributes. Physically, nonmetals tend to be highly volatile (easily vaporized), have low elasticity, and are good insulators of heat and electricity; chemically, they tend to have high ionization energy and electronegativity values, and gain or share electrons when they react with ...
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Nonmetals are generally poor conductors of heat and electricity. Properties of nonmetals are usually the opposite of properties of metals; Nonmetals can be solid, liquid, or gas at room temperature depending upon the element. Sulfur, bromine, and helium are typical nonmetals.
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 character, such as the metallic appearance of graphite, black phosphorus, selenium and iodine.
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The metals can be divided into broad classes, as: active metals; transition metals; and frontier metals (Russell and Lee 2005, p. 419).Footnote 1 A fourth class, the noble metals, is a subset of the transition metals (MacKay et al. 2018; Rayner-Canham 2018). The active metals are here considered to encompass groups 1–3, the lanthanoids and actinoid...
After highlighting the halogens and the noble gases, authors have always found it difficult to treat the remaining nonmetals on a holistic rather than group-by-group basis. Thus, in a textbook, there may be separate sections on hydrogen; carbon; nitrogen and phosphorus; and oxygen, sulfur, and selenium. And some or all of the metalloids may or may ...
As with classification schemes generally, there is some variation and overlapping of properties within and across each class (Jones 2010) shown in Fig. 1. Beryllium, for example, has a crystalline structure showing a mixture of metallic and covalent bonding, and an amphoteric oxide, thereby having some characteristics of a frontier metal (Russell a...
For students or instructors who enjoy more visceral distinctions, Table 2may be used to convey a stronger impression of the nature of the elements in each class. For group 18 nonmetals as “cup of tea nonmetals”, C. S. Lewis said that “Tea should be taken in solitude”. This brings to mind an image of the noble gases, quietly sipping tea by themselve...
- René E. Vernon
- rene@webone.com.au
- 2020
The nonmetals exhibit a rich variety of chemical behaviors. They include the most reactive and least reactive of elements, and they form many different ionic and covalent compounds. This section presents an overview of the properties and chemical behaviors of the nonmetals, as well as the chemistry of specific elements.
The nonmetals are elements located in the upper right portion of the periodic table. Their properties and behavior are quite different from those of metals on the left side. Under normal conditions, more than half of the nonmetals are gases, one is a liquid, and the rest include some of the softest and hardest of solids.
