Element category
Metalloids
The metalloids lie along the zigzag boundary between metals and nonmetals in the p-block. Their properties are intermediate: they often look metallic yet are brittle and conduct electricity only moderately. That in-between behavior makes several of them, above all silicon and germanium, the foundation of semiconductor electronics.
At a glance
- Elements
- 7
- Atomic numbers
- 5 to 84
- Block
- p-block
- Periods
- 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
- Phase at STP
- solid (7)
Shared properties
- Properties intermediate between metals and nonmetals
- Often metallic in appearance but brittle rather than malleable
- Semiconductors rather than true conductors, the basis of modern electronics
- Chemistry is mixed, forming both alloys with metals and covalent compounds with nonmetals