Lesson 4.8 - Properties Of Metals

Metallic structure

Metals are made up of giant structures of atoms.

They have strong metallic bonds between these atoms.

Melting and boiling point

The melting and boiling points of metals are relatively high.

This is due to the strong metallic bonds found throughout the structure.

Arrangement

Pure metals are arranged in layers.

This means that the layers can slide past each other.

This property allows metals to be shaped easily.

Shaping metals

Metals can easily be bent and reshaped.

This is because of the layers being able to slide past each other in the structure.

This makes metals malleable.

Alloys

An alloy is a mixture of metals.

They are usually harder than pure metals, so they are used instead because they are stronger.

Alloys are strong because they 'distort' the layers of metal, which prevents layers sliding.