properties

[ankur bhattacharjee]

How metallic bond differs from a covlent bond ? Also give various properties of metallic bonding.

[India Hindi Blog Information]

Metallic bonds can be considered as a multiplicity of resonating covalent bonds. However, there are two basic differences between metallic and covalent bonds which are -

Covalent bonds are directional in nature, while metallic bonds are non directional.

Metallic bonds are weaker than the covalent bonds.

Properties of Metallic Bonding 

• They have high electrical and thermal conductivity, due to the presence of large number of valence electrons. 
• All other properties of metals such as ductility, metal alloying capabilities are also due to valence electrons. 
• They are much more tightly bounded than ionic solids such as He, H, Ne etc... and less tightly bounded than the covalent crystals such as diamond, Ge and Si.
• They have low melting points as tungsten. 
• They are opaque to all electromagnetic radiations from very low frequency to the middle ultraviolet, where they become transparent.