:Free element

{{Use British English Oxford spelling|date = March 2019}}

{{Short description|Chemical elements not bound to other elements or compounds}}

In chemistry, a free element is a chemical element that is not combined with or chemically bonded to other elements. Examples of elements which can occur as free elements include the molecular oxygen (O{{sub|2}}) and carbon as diamond or graphite.A. Earnshaw and Norman Greenwood. Chemistry of the Elements (Second Edition) {{ISBN|978-0-7506-3365-9}}. Mentions "free element" 30 times, for example, "Oxygen is the most abundant element on the earth's surface. It occurs both as a free element and in combination with innumerable compounds." and "Carbon occurs both as a free element and in combined form." Other examples of free elements include the noble metals gold and platinum.