Properties of Metals and Non-Metals Quiz

Study Notes

Metals and Non-Metals are two fundamental classes of matter found all around us and play essential roles in our daily lives. Understanding their properties helps us appreciate how they function and interact with each other in various chemical reactions.

Properties of Metals:

They conduct heat and electricity well.
They tend to have high melting points and boiling points compared to most other elements.
They typically exist in solid form under standard conditions.
Many metals can reflect light due to the presence of electrons just beneath the surface layer known as the atom's valence shell.

Non-Metals, on the other hand, behave very differently from metals:

Properties of Non-Metals:

They don't conduct heat or electricity nearly as well as metals do.
Their melting and boiling points are usually much lower than those of metals.
Non-metallic solids often appear brittle; however, some forms of carbon, like graphite, are quite soft.
Unlike metals, many non-metals cannot reflect light because there is nothing between the outermost electron shell and the nucleus.

The contrasting nature of these materials also leads to different reactivities. Metals generally lose electrons easily while non-metals gain them readily. This characteristic makes metals more likely to react in oxygen-rich environments such as air, while non-metals are more likely to give up electrons when exposed to powerful reducing agents. For example, iron rusts within seconds after being cut open in ordinary air. However, if it were placed in hydrogen gas, little would happen. Conversely, non-metal chlorine will burn magnesium metal in the air, but it will only make a hissing sound in hydrogen gas.

Metallic Bonding describes the interactions among atoms in a metal. Atoms in metals share free electrons to create a lattice structure that holds together the entire piece of material. When you bend an aluminum bar, for instance, you affect every single atom inside it by pulling apart or compressing its lattice structure—the metallic bonds holding them all together. In contrast, covalent bonds occur between pairs of atoms, which account for the strong connections in molecules made mostly out of non-metals. These bonds are important in compounds and can either cause a substance to melt into a liquid or turn into a gas without any sign of having been melted! The strength of the covalent bond depends largely on how tightly the atoms pull towards one another. If they pull too hard, the bond breaks, releasing energy in the process.

Acidic Properties of Non-Metals: Some non-metals act like acids. An acid has a particular kind of chemical formula, with a specific number of parts that can dissolve away, leaving behind something else. Acids contain large amounts of Hydrogen (H) relative to other things. In chemistry, this means that any substance containing hydrogen and a fairly weakly held part is probably going to act like an acid when mixed with water. Examples of common non-metal acids include nitric acid(nitrogen) and sulfuric acid(sulfur). However, not all non-metals are acids; indeed, even metal oxides that look like acids aren't really acids at all!.

Description

Test your knowledge on the properties, behaviors, and reactivities of metals and non-metals. Learn about metallic bonding, covalent bonds, and how non-metals can exhibit acidic properties. Explore the contrasting characteristics that define these two fundamental classes of matter.