Professional paper

https://doi.org/10.15255/KUI.2017.018

Chemistry in Education:
How to Understand the Concept of Metal

Nenad Raos ; Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health Ksaverska c. 2 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia
Nenad Raos (ur.)

Abstract

The concept of metal is not, strictly speaking, scientific (chemical) but traditional, arising from the ancient miners’ tradition and the search for the artificial production of gold, the most perfect metal of the alchemists. Closer analysis reveals, however, that there are no universal properties of metals, and that virtually every chemical element could be regarded as metal as well as nonmetal. The metalic character of an element depends on its chemical combination. This is visible from the comparison of “metallic” compounds of nonmetals and “nonmetallic” compounds of metals, as well as from the nature of the chemical bond (covalent/ionic), as deduced from the difference in electronegativity of the constituting atoms.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Keywords

chemical education; electronegativity; alotrophic modifications; history of chemistry

Hrčak ID:

206999

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/206999

Publication date:

10.12.2018.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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