Chapter 3 · Introduction

Chapter 3 — Metals and Non-metals

Shiny and strong, dull and brittle: how metals and non-metals differ, why some metals leap into reactions while gold sits unchanged for centuries, how ions and ionic compounds form, and how humans take metals out of rock and keep them from rusting.

Your school bell, the wire in your charger, the steel frame of a bridge, the aluminium foil around a sandwich, the gold ring on a finger: every one is a metal, chosen because of what it can do. Metals can be hammered into sheets, drawn into wires and rung like a bell; they carry heat and electricity. Yet they differ wildly in character. A lump of sodium bursts into flame in water, iron slowly turns to rust, and gold stays bright in the mud of a river for ten thousand years. Non-metals — the carbon of a pencil, the sulphur of a matchhead, the oxygen of the air — behave in a completely different way.

This chapter sorts out the difference. First you will compare the physical and chemical properties of metals and non-metals and rank the metals in a reactivity series. Then you will discover that metals and non-metals react by transferring electrons, forming ions that lock into ionic compounds such as salt. Finally you will follow metals from ore to alloy: how each metal is extracted according to its place in the series, how copper is refined, and how corrosion is prevented.

Properties of metals→Reactions with O₂, water, acids→Reactivity series→Electron transfer & ions→Ionic compounds→Ores & extraction→Corrosion & alloys

🎯 By the end of this chapter you can…

distinguish metals from non-metals by physical properties, and recall the exceptions (mercury, sodium, iodine, graphite, diamond);
write balanced equations for the reactions of metals with oxygen, water, dilute acids and salt solutions, and classify oxides as basic, acidic, neutral or amphoteric;
use the reactivity series to predict displacement reactions and to explain why nitric acid and aqua regia behave differently;
describe how metal and non-metal atoms form ions by transferring electrons, draw electron-shell diagrams for $\mathrm{NaCl}$, $\mathrm{MgCl_{2}}$ and $\mathrm{MgO}$, and write formulae by balancing charges;
explain the properties of ionic compounds — high melting points, solubility, and conduction only when molten or dissolved;
choose the method of extracting a metal (heating, reduction with carbon or aluminium, electrolysis) from its position in the reactivity series, and describe the refining of copper, corrosion and its prevention, and the use of alloys.

The taller the bar, the more reactive the metal. Choose a metal (or press ▶ Play to tour the series). Metals above it can displace it from a salt solution; metals below it are displaced by it. The exception is the top three (K, Na, Ca): they are so reactive that in a salt solution they react with the water itself (forming hydrogen and the hydroxide) instead of displacing the metal. Notice how the method of extraction changes as you move down the ladder.

Metal:

can displace—

displaced by—

extracted by—

Sections in this chapter

3.1

Physical and Chemical Properties of Metals and Non-metals

Lustre, malleability, conduction and the exceptions; reactions with oxygen, water, acids and salt solutions; amphoteric oxides, aqua regia and the reactivity series.

$\mathrm{Fe(s) + CuSO_{4}(aq) \rightarrow FeSO_{4}(aq) + Cu(s)}$

Open section →3.2

How Metals and Non-metals React: Ionic Compounds

Stable electron shells, cations and anions, electron-shell diagrams for NaCl, MgCl₂ and MgO, and the properties of ionic compounds.

$\mathrm{Na^{+}Cl^{-}}$ · $\mathrm{Mg^{2+}O^{2-}}$

Open section →3.3

Occurrence and Extraction of Metals, and Corrosion

Ores and enrichment; extraction by heating, carbon reduction, the thermite reaction and electrolysis; refining copper; corrosion, galvanising and alloys.

$\mathrm{ZnO + C \rightarrow Zn + CO}$

Open section →

✅ Before you start

You should be able to write and balance equations with state symbols (Section 1.1), recognise displacement reactions (Section 1.2) and oxidation and reduction as gain and loss of oxygen, including rusting (Section 1.3). From Chapter 2 you need the behaviour of acids with metals and the idea that metal oxides are basic and non-metal oxides acidic (Section 2.1). From Class 9 Science (Structure of the Atom) you need protons, electrons and the arrangement of electrons in shells.

← 2.3 Salts and Their Everyday Uses 3.1 Physical and Chemical Properties of Metals and Non-metals →