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Properties of Metals

Most metals have strong metallic bonds, high electrical conductivity in the solid and liquid states and high melting and boiling points.
Metals are good conductors because electrons are mobile charge carriers and they can move through the lattice.
Melting point depends on the strength of the metallic bonds. Group 1 metals have the weakest bonds because only one electron per metal ion is involved in the bonding and the positive ion has a charge of +1.
In contrast, magnesium is a much harder metal with the cation having a +2 charge and there being two delocalised electrons.Metals do not dissolve.

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Specification: OCR Chemistry A (H032), AS-level, 3.1.1 Periodicity. Topic: Periodicity.

Key terms in this lesson

Ion
A positively or negatively charged atom or group of atoms, formed by the loss or gain of electrons.
Cation
A positively charged ion, formed when an atom loses one or more electrons.
Delocalised electrons
Electrons that are not associated with a single atom or bond and are free to move throughout a structure.
Group
A vertical column of the periodic table, containing elements with the same number of outer-shell electrons.

More in Periodicity

All 14 lessons in Periodicity · All OCR AS-level Chemistry topics