Chapter 4,5,6

• Copper is one of the few transition metals used in its pure form, most others are used to form alloys
• Properties of Transition metals

  • Harder
  • Higher densities
  • Higher melting points
  • Strong magnetic properties
• Alkali Metals


  • Soft enough to cut with a knife, react vigorously with water to produce hydrogen gas
• Uses of Iron

  • Buildings
  • Bridges
  • Automobiles
  • Machinery
  • Appliances
• Metals are lustrous or reflective
• Metals generally react by losing electrons
• Uses of Titanium


  • Medical devices within the body
  • Wheelchairs
  • Computer cases
  • Lightweight alloys used in high-temperature environments like spacecraft and aircraft
• Forming metal ions

  1. Takes less energy to remove an electron from the outer shell when the atom is large

  2. Metal atoms tend to lose their outer-shell electrons to form positive ions - cations
• Metal atoms tend to lose their outer-shell electrons to form positive ions - cations
• Metals are hard and tend to have high boiling points
• Metals tend to react by losing electrons
• Metals are good conductors of electricity
• Free-moving delocalised electrons in metals will move toward a positive electrode and away from a negative electrode in an electric circuit
• Metals are good conductors of electricity due to free-moving delocalised electrons that move toward a positive electrode and away from a negative electrode in an electric circuit
• Uses of Aluminum

  • Saucepans
  • Frying pans
  • Drink cans
  • Cooking foil
  • Food packaging
  • Roofing
  • Window frames
  • Appliance trim
  • Decorative furniture
  • Electrical cables
  • Aircraft and boat construction
• Uses of Gold

  • Electrical connections
  • Jewellery
  • Monetary standard
  • Dentistry
• Transition metals are used by the body to carry out certain biochemical reactions
• Transition Metals include Iron, Nickel, and precious metals like silver and gold
• It takes less energy to remove an electron from the outer shell when the atom is large
• Transition metals generally are smaller in size

  They have greater core charges and pack together more tightly with stronger bonds
• Metals are good conductors of heat
• Metal Properties

  • Malleable
  • Ductile
  • Lustrous
  • High tensile strength
  • Low ionisation energies
  • Electronegative
• Metals are malleable and ductile because when force causes metal ions to move past each other, layers of ions are still held together by the delocalised electrons between them
• When force causes metal ions to move past each other, layers of ions are still held together by the delocalised electrons between them
• Metals conduct electricity in the solid state and in the molten (melted) liquid state
• Metals are generally hard and have relatively high boiling points due to strong electrostatic forces of attraction between positive metal ions and the sea of delocalised electrons holding the metallic lattice together
• Metals generally have high densities
• Electrons must be relatively easily removed from metal atoms
• Metals are malleable and ductile
• Reactivity with acids


  • Metals are normally more reactive with acids than water
  • Reactions tend to be more energetic
  • Elements placed in order of their relative reactivity
• Metals

  • Malleable and ductile
• Reasons for different reactivities of metals

  • Relative attractions of valence electrons to the nucleus of atoms
  • Metals react - atoms tend to form positive ions by donating one or more of their electrons to other atoms
  • Metal atoms that don’t need as much energy to remove electrons tend to be most reactive
  • Tend to have large atomic radii - the lowest ionisation energies
• Other properties of metals

  • Generally have high densities
  • Good conductors of heat
  • Metals tend to react by losing electrons
• Reactivity with water

  • Sodium - Reacts vigorously, producing enough energy to melt the sodium, which fizzes and skates on the water surface
  • Potassium - Reacts violently, making crackling sounds as the heat evolved and ignites the hydrogen produced by the reaction
  • Rubidium - Explodes violently on contact with water
  • Magnesium - Will not react with water at room temp but will react with steam
  • Calcium - Reacts slowly with water at room temp
• Making alloys

  1. Metals are mixed with another substance (carbon or another metal) - atoms aren’t all the same size causing the alloy to generally be harder and melt at a lower temperature

  2. The shift in the metallic lattice causes the melting point to be lower

  3. Steel: alloys of iron

  4. Small amount of carbon is added to iron to make carbon steel

  5. Type of interstitial alloy

  6. Small proportion of an element is added to the element with significantly smaller atoms is added to the metal

  7. Carbon steel is generally harder and less malleable than pure iron
• Alloying element

  • Manganese - Increases strength and toughness, Bicycle frames
  • Chromium - Increases hardness and tensile strength, resists corrosion, Stainless steel for cutlery, kitchen sinks
  • Nickel - Increases toughness, tensile strength and hardness, resists corrosion, Stainless steel
  • Cobalt - Improves magnetic properties, resists high temperatures, Alnico magnets, jet propulsion engines
• Transition metals

  • Less reactive in water than group 1 and group 2
  • Ions react fairly slowly with water (gold and platinum- essentially unreactive)
• Delocalised electrons

  Move toward a positive electrode and away from a negative electrode in an electric circuit
• Reactivity with Oxygen (O)


  • Group 1 metals react rapidly with oxygen
  • Group 2 metals react with oxygen to form oxides - less rapidly than group 1
  • Heat is generally needed to start the reaction
  • Transition metals can’t be found in their pure form they only exist as oxides
• Determining the reactivity of metals

  1. Reactivity with water

  2. Reactivity with acids

  3. Reactivity with Oxygen (O)