Metalloid - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A metalloid or semimetal is a chemical element. Metalloids are elements that have the properties of both metal and non-metal elements. It might be shiny, but brittle. It might be dull, but conduct electricity.

The most common semimetal is silicon. Silicon has electrical conductivity between metals and nonmetals. It is a semiconductor.

Group 1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Period
1 1
H

2
He
2 3
Li
4
Be

5
B
6
C
7
N
8
O
9
F
10
Ne
3 11
Na
12
Mg

13
Al
14
Si
15
P
16
S
17
Cl
18
Ar
4 19
K
20
Ca

21
Sc
22
Ti
23
V
24
Cr
25
Mn
26
Fe
27
Co
28
Ni
29
Cu
30
Zn
31
Ga
32
Ge
33
As
34
Se
35
Br
36
Kr
5 37
Rb
38
Sr

39
Y
40
Zr
41
Nb
42
Mo
43
Tc
44
Ru
45
Rh
46
Pd
47
Ag
48
Cd
49
In
50
Sn
51
Sb
52
Te
53
I
54
Xe
6 55
Cs
56
Ba
*
71
Lu
72
Hf
73
Ta
74
W
75
Re
76
Os
77
Ir
78
Pt
79
Au
80
Hg
81
Tl
82
Pb
83
Bi
84
Po
85
At
86
Rn
7 87
 Fr 
88
Ra
*
*
103
Lr
104
Rf
105
Db
106
Sg
107
Bh
108
Hs
109
Mt
110
Ds
111
Rg
112
Cn
113
Nh
114
Fl
115
Mc
116
Lv
117
Ts
118
Og

* Lanthanides 57
La
58
Ce
59
Pr
60
Nd
61
Pm
62
Sm
63
Eu
64
Gd
65
Tb
66
Dy
67
Ho
68
Er
69
Tm
70
Yb
** Actinides 89
Ac
90
Th
91
Pa
92
U
93
Np
94
Pu
95
Am
96
Cm
97
Bk
98
Cf
99
Es
100
Fm
101
Md
102
No
Key
Metals Metalloids Nonmetals


An approximate way to classify metalloids is to look at the Periodic Table of elements. See the double diagonal line: top left Boron and Aluminium, bottom right Polonium and Astatine. Those diagonals are the metalloids. Some metalloids are not semimetals, and some semimetals are not metalloids.