Chapter 5 Properties of

materials
Year 7
Metals

 Shiny
 High boiling point
 High melting point
 Ductile – can be drawn into wires
 Malleable – can be beaten into shapes
 High density
 Strong
 Mostly solids except mercury which is a liquid
 Sonorous
 Good conductors of heat
 Good conductors of electricity
 Some are magnetic – iron, cobalt, nickel, steel
Non - metals

 Brittle
 Low boiling point
 Low melting point
 Low density
 Cannot conduct heat
 Cannot conduct electricity , Carbon is an exception
Alloys

 Metal mixtures are called alloys

 Properties of alloys are different from the metals
 Bronze- copper and tin. Harder
 Steel- iron and carbon
 Chromium and nickel = stainless steel. Used for cutlery
 Alloys are harder and stronger than the metals because of the arrangement of
the atoms , they cannot slide over and are stuck in place.
Use of alloys

 Coins – copper, zinc and tin

 Jewellery – gold and copper
 Aeroplanes – aluminium , magnesium and copper = duralumin.
 Artificial joints = plastic and alloys , often titanium
 Modern alloys = nitinol= nickel and titanium, eye glasses
 Brass = copper and zinc
 Tables on page 166 and 167
Separation of mixtures

 We use properties of the constituents of a mixture to separate them

 Whether they are soluble in water, insoluble, magnetic,
 Copper sulfate and water – dissolve in water and evaporate
 Food dye and water – distillation – different boiling points. This is also used to
separate water from alcohol/ ethanol
 Fractional distillation is used to separate fractions of petroleum
 Chromatography – to separate dyes which have different solubility in a solvent
 Decanting – separate insoluble solid from a liquid. Also filtering.
 Sieving – solids of different sizes
 Centrifugation – separate solids suspended in liquid – blood cells from plasma
Chromatography
PH

 PH – indicators are used to tell us to how strong or weak an acid/ alkali is

 Indicators - phenolphthalein, litmus, universal indicators
 The indicators use colour change to tell us the PH
 Acids – corrosive, Sour
 Alkalis – corrosive, soapy to the touch
 Acids and alkalis cancel each other out- neutralize each other
Acids and alkalis

 Acids – hydrochloric acid HCl

 nitric acid HNO₃
 Sulfuric acid H ₂SO₄

Alkali – sodium hydroxide NaOH

potassium hydroxide KOH
calcium hydroxide CaOH
Universal indicator
Litmus paper
Making indicators