Metals good conductors

Reddish, soft metal, good conductor of electricity and heat. 

Metals Good conductors of heat and electricity. Metals tend to lose electrons to form cations. 

Metallic solids Recall from Chapter 8 that metallic solids consist of positive metal ions surrounded by a sea of mobile electrons. The strength of the metallic bonds between cations and electrons varies among metals and accounts for their wide range of physical properties. For example, tin melts at 232°C, but nickel melts at 1455°C. The mobile electrons make metals malleable—easily hammered into shapes—and ductile—easily drawn into wires. When force is applied to a metal, the electrons shift and thereby keep the metal ions bonded in their new positions. Read Everyday Chemistry at the end of the chapter to learn about shape-memory metals. Mobile electrons make metals good conductors of heat and electricity. Power lines carry electricity from power plants to homes and businesses and to the electric train shown in Figure 13-21a. 

Why are metals good conductors of heat and electricity Why does the ability of a metal to conduct electricity decrease with increasing temperature ... 

Thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity The movement of mobile electrons around positive metallic cations makes metals good conductors. The delocalized electrons move heat from one place to another much more quickly than the electrons in a material that does not contain mobile electrons. Mobile electrons easily move as part of an electric current when an electric potential is applied to a metal. These same delocalized electrons interact with light, absorbing and releasing photons, thereby creating the property of luster in metals. 

Copper is reddish and takes on a bright metallic luster. It is malleable, ductile, and a good conductor of heat and electricity (second only to silver in electrical conductivity). 

Solutions of alkah metal and ammonium iodides in Hquid iodine are good conductors of electricity, comparable to fused salts and aqueous solutions of strong acids. The Hquid is therefore a polar solvent of considerable ionising power, whereas its own electrical conductivity suggests that it is appreciably ionized, probably into I" and I (triodide). Iodine resembles water in this respect. The metal iodides and polyiodides are bases, whereas the iodine haHdes are acids. 

Properties and Mature of Bonding. The metaUic carbides are interesting materials that combine the physical properties of ceramics (qv) with the electronic nature of metals. Thus they are hard and strong, but at the same time good conductors of heat and electricity. 

Dyes and Pigments. Several thousand metric tons of metallated or metal coordinated phthalocyanine dyes (10) are sold annually in the United States. The partially oxidized metallated phthalocyanine dyes are good conductors and are called molecular metals (see Semiconductors Phthalocyanine compounds Colorants forplastics). Azo dyes (qv) are also often metallated. The basic unit for a 2,2 -azobisphenol dye is shown as stmcture (11). Sulfonic acid groups are used to provide solubiHty, and a wide variety of other substituents influence color and stabiHty. Such complexes have also found appHcations as analytical indicators, pigments (qv), and paint additives. 

The thermal conductivity of solids has a wide range of numerical values, depending upon whether the solid is a relatively good conductor of heat, such as metal, or a poor conductor, such as glass-fiber or calcium silicalc. The laUer serves as insulation. 

In solids, metals are good conductors - gold, silver and copper being among the best. The range continues downwards through minerals such as concrete and masonry, to wood, and then to the lowest conductors such as thermal insulating materials. 

Metallic Cations, mobile — Metallic bond Variable mp good conductors in solid insoluble in Na... 

Looking at a sample of each transition element in the fourth row, we see that they are all metallic. When clean, they are shiny and lustrous. They are good conductors of electricity and also of heat some of them (copper, silver, gold) are quite outstanding in these respects. One of them (mercury) is ordinarily a liquid all others are solids at room temperature. 

An electric current can be defined as a flow of electrons. In conductors, such as metals, the attraction between the outer electrons and the nucleus of the atom is weak, the outer electrons can move readily and consequently metals are good conductors of electricity. In other materials, electrons are strongly bonded to the nucleus and are not free to move. Such materials are insulators (or dielectrics). In semiconductors, the conductivity falls between those of conductors and insulators. Table 13.1 lists the characteristics of all three groups. 

The elements can be divided into categories metals, nonmetals, and metalloids. Examples of each appear in Figure U. Except for hydrogen, all the elements in the left and central regions of the periodic table are metals. Metals display several characteristic properties. For example, they are good conductors of heat and electricity and usually appear shiny. Metals are malleable, meaning that they can be hammered into thin sheets, and ductile, meaning that they can be drawn into wires. Except for mercury, which is a liquid, all metals are solids at room temperature. 

For a material to be a good conductor it must be possible to excite an electron from the valence band (the states below the Fermi level) to the conduction band (an empty state above the Fermi level) in which it can move freely through the solid. The Pauli principle forbids this in a state below the Fermi level, where all states are occupied. In the free-electron metal of Fig. 6.14 there will be plenty of electrons in the conduction band at any nonzero temperature - just as there will be holes in the valence band - that can undertake the transport necessary for conduction. This is the case for metals such as sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium and aluminium. 

The transition metals are also good conductors as they have a similar sp band as the free-electron metals, plus a partially filled d band. The Group IB metals, copper, silver and gold, represent borderline cases, as the d band is filled and located a few eV below the Fermi level. Their sp band, however, ensures that these metals are good conductors. 

Why is the d-band of a metal narrower at the surface than in the interior Draw a simple version of the density of states for the electron bands of a metal (a good conductor), a semiconductor and a perfect insulator. 

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