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Atomic Structure

Metallic Bonding.

Metals form a giant structure (like ionic compounds and giant molecules).

Metallic Bonding

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
Metal-Structure-Delocalised-Electrons
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.