metallic bonding

• what are the properties of metals?

  1. malleable
  2. high strength
  3. high melting points
• Fullerenes are allotropes of carbon, made by bending sheets of graphene into hollow structures.

  Nanotubes made from these are useful in electronics. This is because each carbon atom has one delocalised electron which can carry charge.
• In metallic bonding, electrons are delocalised from the lattice of metal ions. 

  These electrons can carry charge, and so metal acts as a conductor of electricity. 

  These electrons can also carry thermal energy, meaning metals are good conductors of heat.
• what is an alloy?

  A mixture of two or more metals.
• Alloys tend to have a higher strength than pure metals. 

  This is because the atoms/ions of the different elements are different sizes, which disrupts the regular layered structure and so means the layers can no longer slide over one another.