4th Year Stage Material Science-Lecture 01

Duhok Polytechnique University-Petrochemical Department

2018 / 2019
Material Science
Lecture 01: Metals; Non-metals
Lecturer: Dr Farhad M. Ali

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DR FARHAD M. ALI MATERIAL SCIENCE-LECTURE-01-2018-2019

4th Year Stage Material Science-Lecture 01

What is material?

It is a type of physical thing, such as wood, stone, or plastic, having qualities that allow it to
be used to make other things: a hard/soft material.

Materials come under three basic categories: metals, ceramics and polymers. A mixture
of these fundamental types forms a composite.

Elements

 Any substance that contains only one kind of an atom. Examples: O2 or H2

 A pure substance composed of only one type of atom.
 Cannot be broken down into another substance by chemical or physical means.

Atoms cannot be created or destroyed in a chemical reaction. They cannot be broken down
into simpler substances by chemical reactions.

Example: Water decomposes into a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen when an electric current
is passed through the liquid. Hydrogen and oxygen, on the other hand, cannot be
decomposed into simpler substances. They are therefore the elementary, or simplest,
chemical substances - elements.

The elements can be divided into three categories that have characteristic properties: metals,
non-metals, and semimetals. Most elements are metals, which are found on the left and
toward the bottom of the periodic table.

Metals account for about two thirds of all the elements and about 24% of the mass of the
planet. They are all around us in such forms as steel structures, copper wires, aluminum foil,
and gold jewelry. Metals are widely used because of their properties: strength, ductility, high
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melting point, thermal and electrical conductivity, and toughness.

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DR FARHAD M. ALI MATERIAL SCIENCE-LECTURE-01-2018-2019

4th Year Stage Material Science-Lecture 01

Metals are often divided into base metals (oxidize easily) and precious metals (do not quite
oxidized so easily).

Corrosion of metals:

When the surface of a metal changes from being an element into a compound. The surface
of the metal goes from being shiny to dull. Nearly all metals corrode, they do not all corrode
at the same rate. The corrosion needs oxygen and water and it speeds up in the presence of
salts. The corrosion of iron is called rusting.

Corrosion involves the change of the surface of a metal from an element into a compound.

Rusting is the special name given to the corrosion of iron

A metal’s resistance to corrosion is related to its position in the

reactivity series. The more reactive a metal, the less resistant it
is to corrosion.

Gold is unreactive metal and does not corrode easily

Metallic Bond:

Is the electrostatic interaction between positive metal ions and

delocalized outer-shell-electrons. The atoms in a solid metal are
held together by metallic bonding. In the metallic bonding the
atoms are ionized. The positive ions occupy fixed
positions in the lattice. The outer-shell electrons are
delocalized. They are shared between all the atoms in the
metallic structure. The metal atoms are held together by
the attraction between the positive ions and the negative
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electrons.
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DR FARHAD M. ALI MATERIAL SCIENCE-LECTURE-01-2018-2019

4th Year Stage Material Science-Lecture 01

Metal atoms form a giant lattice similar to ionic compounds.

This model explains the following properties of metals:

 metals are malleable - can be hammered into a shape as

the cations slide past each other.

 metals are ductile - can be drawn out into a wire as cations

slide past each other.

 metals are good conductors of electricity - the weakly held

electrons are able to flow.

Chemical Properties of metals

Metals are also called electropositive elements because the metal atoms form positively
charged ion by losing electrons. Following are the important chemical reactions of metals
which takes place due to the electropositive character of metals.

1. Reaction of Metals with Oxygen

Almost all metals react with oxygen to form metal oxides. But different metals react with
oxygen at different intensities. For example, sodium metal is always kept immersed in
kerosene oil. Because, if we keep it open, it reacts so vigorously with oxygen present in air
that it catches fire. Example: 2Mg + O2 → 2MgO

2. Reaction of Metals with Water

Metals react with water to produce metal oxide (or metal hydroxide) and hydrogen gas. But
all metals do not react with water at equal intensity. The metals which are very reactive can
react even with cold water while the other metals react with hot water or with steam.
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Example: Ca + 2H2O → Ca(OH)2 + H2

DR FARHAD M. ALI MATERIAL SCIENCE-LECTURE-01-2018-2019

4th Year Stage Material Science-Lecture 01

3. Reaction of Metals with Dilute Acids

When a metal reacts with a dilute acid then a metal salt and hydrogen gas are formed.
Example: Zn + 2HCl → ZnCl2 + H2

4. Reaction of Metals with Salt Solutions:

If a more reactive metal is put in the salt solution of a less reactive metal, the more reactive
metal displaces the less reactive metal from its salt solution. These reactions are called
displacement reaction.

For example: Reaction of Copper with Silver Nitrate Solution.

If a piece of copper metal is placed in colourless solution of silver nitrate for some time,
the colour of the solution becomes blue and a shining white deposit of silver metal is formed
on the piece of copper. Actually, in this reaction copper metal is more reactive than silver
present in silver nitrate solution. So, copper displaces silver from silver nitrate solution to
form copper nitrate and silver metal.

Cu + 2AgNO3 → Cu(NO3)2 + 2Ag

5. Reaction of Metals with Chlorine

All metals react with chlorine to form ionic metal chlorides. For example:
2Na + Cl2 → 2NaCl

6. Reaction of Metals with Hydrogen

Only a few metals like Na, K, Ca and Mg react with hydrogen to form metal hydrides
example: 2Na + H2 → 2NaH
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DR FARHAD M. ALI MATERIAL SCIENCE-LECTURE-01-2018-2019

4th Year Stage Material Science-Lecture 01

Physical Properties of Metals:

1. Metals are a good conductor of electricity when

they are solid or molten. This means that they can conduct
electricity due to the free moving electrons present in them.
Copper is used as wiring as it is a good conductor of
electricity. Silver is the best metal for conductive electricity,
but it is very expensive.
Order of reactivity:
Silver > copper > Gold > Aluminium > Iron > Platinum

2. Metals have high melting points and high boiling

points as they have strong metallic bonds. Gold for example,
has a melting of 1064 oC and a boiling point of 2807 oC
Metals are solids at room temperature with the exception of
mercury, which is liquid at room temperature (Gallium is liquid
on hot days).
What is the hardest metal to melt?
Tungsten of all metals in pure form, tungsten (W) has the
highest melting point (3422 °C)

3. Metals weigh a lot as they have a high density.

Metals are heavy for their size. The density of
metals ranges from Osmium at the highest density
(22.59 g cm-3) to lithium at the lowest density (0.534 g
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cm-3) of any metal.

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DR FARHAD M. ALI MATERIAL SCIENCE-LECTURE-01-2018-2019

4th Year Stage Material Science-Lecture 01

4. Luster: Metals have the quality of reflecting light from their surface and can be polished
e.g., gold, silver and copper

5. Malleability: Metals have the ability to

withstand hammering and can be made into thin
sheets known as foils. For example, a sugar
cube sized chunk of gold can be pounded into a
thin sheet that will cover a football field.
Malleability is the ability of a metal to be hammered,
rolled, or pressed into various shapes without
rupture or fracture

6. Ductility: Metals can be drawn into wires.

For example, 100 g of silver can be drawn into a
thin wire about 200 meters long.

Ductility is the ability of a metal to be drawn or

stretched permanently without rupture or fracture.
Metals that lack ductility will crack or break before
bending.

7. Metals are hard, they can’t be broken

easily and require a lot of energy and strength to
break. Iron is used to make cars, buildings, ships,
etc. All metals are hard except sodium and
potassium, which are soft and can be cut with a
knife. They are scratchproof materials.
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Hardness is the resistance to scratching, cutting or abrasion

DR FARHAD M. ALI MATERIAL SCIENCE-LECTURE-01-2018-2019

4th Year Stage Material Science-Lecture 01

What is the hardest metal?

Chromium, on the Mohs scale for hardness, is the hardest metal around

Some differences between metals and non-metals:

Why metals have high melting and boiling points?

A large amount of heat energy is required to overcome the strong forces of attraction between
positively charged ions and delocalised electrons.
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Why metals are malleable and ductile?

DR FARHAD M. ALI MATERIAL SCIENCE-LECTURE-01-2018-2019

4th Year Stage Material Science-Lecture 01

Metals are malleable (bent to form shapes) and ductile (stretched to form wires). Since there
is a regular arrangement of ions in layers, the layers of ions can slide of each other easily
when a force is applied without breaking the metallic bonds.

Why Metals are conductive?

Electrical conductivity in metals is a result of the movement of electrically charged particles.

... It is these 'free electrons' that allow metals to conduct an electric current. Because valence
electrons are free to move they can travel through the lattice that forms the physical structure
of a metal

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DR FARHAD M. ALI MATERIAL SCIENCE-LECTURE-01-2018-2019

4th Year Stage Material Science-Lecture 01

Why graphite is the only one non-metal conductive?

Each carbon atom in graphite has one non-bonded outer electron, which
becomes delocalised. The delocalised electrons are free to move through the structure, so
graphite can conduct electricity. This makes graphite useful for electrodes in batteries and
for electrolysis.

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DR FARHAD M. ALI MATERIAL SCIENCE-LECTURE-01-2018-2019