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Metallic Bonding.
Metals form a giant structure (like ionic compounds and giant molecules).
The red balls represent
metal ions. The blue
lines represent
delocalised electrons in the outer shell of the
metal ions.
Delocalised means that they are
not attached to one particular
ion.
The structure of a metal
can also be shown as
In the above picture the dotted lines
represent the delocalised
electrons.
Delocalised electrons are also called
free electrons
because they can
move very
easily through the metal structure.
It is these free electrons which give
metals their properties.
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Copyright © 2008 Dr. Colin France. All Rights Reserved.
