Inorganic Chemistry

Structure and Bonding

What is a metalloid?

Metalloid is a term for elements that are sort-of metals, and sort-of not metals. Sometimes this group of elements is referred to as semimetals. To be more precise, these elements exhibit some of the physical and chemical properties of metals. Generally metalloids have some electrical conductivity, but not nearly as much as true metals. Because of these ambiguous definitions, even which elements are called metalloids can vary. Usually boron, silicon, germanium, arsenic, antimony, and tellurium are included as metalloids; sometimes polonium and astatine; rarely selenium.



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