Metals

• Metals consist of a giant structure of atoms arranged in regular layers
• In a metals the outer shell electrons are delocalised
• The outer electrons are delocaliased. This produces a strong electrostatic force of attraction between the positive metal ions and the negative delocalised electrons (Metallic bonding).This delocalised sea of electrons is responsible for metal elements being able to conduct electricity
• An electrostatic attraction is an attraction between a positively charged object and a negatively charged object
• In order to melt a metal we have to break the strong metallic bonds. This requires a great amount of energy which is why metals have high melting and boiling points
• Moving electrons can carry thermal energy which allows metals to conduct heat
• Metals can be bent and shaped. This is because the layers of atoms can slide over each other. This is a problem because some pure metals such as aluminium and gold are not hard enough to be useful. To make these metals harder we make an alloy
• An alloy is a mixture of metals
• In an alloy, the different sizes of atoms distorts the layers. This makes it more difficult for the layers to slide over each other. This means that alloys are harder then pure metals