Dividing line between metals and nonmetals

This line has been called the amphoteric line,Levy 2001, p. 158 the metal-nonmetal line,Tarendash 2001, p. 78 the metalloid line,Thompson 1999DiSalvo 2000, p. 1800 the semimetal line,Whitley 2009 or the staircase.{{refn|SacksSacks 2001, pp. 191, 194 described the dividing line as, 'A jagged line, like Hadrian's Wall ... [separating] the metals from the rest, with a few "semimetals", metalloids—arsenic, selenium—straddling the wall.'|group=n}} While it has also been called the Zintl borderKing 2005, p. 6006 or the Zintl lineHerchenroeder & Gschneidner 1988De Graef & McHenry 2007, p. 34 these terms instead refer to a vertical line sometimes drawn between groups 13 and 14. This particular line was named by Laves in 1941.Kniep 1996, p. xix It differentiates group 13 elements from those in and to the right of group 14. The former generally combine with electropositive metals to make intermetallic compounds whereas the latter usually form salt-like compounds.Nordell & Miller 1999, p. 579

References to a dividing line between metals and nonmetals appear in the literature as far back as at least 1869.Hinrichs 1869, p. 115. In his article Hinrichs included a periodic table, organized by atomic weight, but this did not show a metal-nonmetal dividing line. Rather, he wrote that, "... elements of like properties or their compounds of like properties, form groups bounded by simple lines. Thus a line drawn through C, As, Te, separates the elements, having metallic lustre from those not having such lustre. The gaseous elements form a small group by themselves, the condensible [sic] chlorine forming the boundary ... So also the boundary lines for other properties may be drawn." In 1891, Walker published a periodic "tabulation" with a diagonal straight line drawn between the metals and the nonmetals.Walker 1891, p. 252 In 1906, Alexander Smith published a periodic table with a zigzag line separating the nonmetals from the rest of elements, in his highly influentialMiles & Gould 1976, p. 444: "His 'Introduction to General Inorganic Chemistry,' 1906, was one of the most important textbooks in the field during the first quarter of the twentieth century." textbook Introduction to General Inorganic Chemistry.Smith 1906, pp. 408, 410 In 1923, Horace G. Deming, an American chemist, published short ([http://www.meta-synthesis.com/webbook/35_pt/pt_database.php?PT_id=456 Mendeleev style]) and medium ([http://www.meta-synthesis.com/webbook/35_pt/pt_database.php?PT_id=360 18-column]) form periodic tables.Deming 1923, pp. 160, 165 Each one had a regular stepped line separating metals from nonmetals. Merck and Company prepared a handout form of Deming's 18-column table, in 1928, which was widely circulated in American schools. By the 1930s Deming's table was appearing in handbooks and encyclopaedias of chemistry. It was also distributed for many years by the Sargent-Welch Scientific Company.Abraham, Coshow & Fix, W 1994, p. 3Emsley 1985, p. 36Fluck 1988, p. 432

A dividing line between metals and nonmetals is sometimes replaced by two dividing lines. One line separates metals and metalloids; the other metalloids and nonmetals.Brown & Holme 2006, p. 57Swenson 2005

Mendeleev wrote that, "It is, however, impossible to draw a strict line of demarcation between metals and nonmetals, there being many intermediate substances".Mendeléeff 1897, p. 23{{refn|In the context of Mendeleev's observation, GlinkaGlinka 1959, p. 77 adds that: "In classing an element as a metal or a nonmetal we only indicate which of its properties—metallic or nonmetallic—are more pronounced in it".|group=n}}{{refn|Mendeleev regarded tellurium as such an intermediate substance: '... it is a bad conductor of heat and electricity, and in this respect, as in many others, it forms a transition from the metals to the nonmetals.'Mendeléeff 1897, p. 274|group=n}} Several other sources note confusion or ambiguity as to the location of the dividing line;MacKay & MacKay 1989, p. 24Norman 1997, p. 31 suggest its apparent arbitrarinessWhitten, Davis & Peck 2003, p. 1140 provides grounds for refuting its validity;Roher 2001, pp. 4–6 and comment as to its misleading, contentious or approximate nature.Hawkes 2001, p. 1686Kotz, Treichel & Weaver 2005, pp. 79–80Housecroft & Constable 2006, p. 322 Deming himself noted that the line could not be drawn very accurately.Deming 1923, p. 381

The table below distinguishes the elements whose stable allotropes at standard conditions are exclusively metallic (yellow) from those that are not. (Carbon and arsenic, which have both stable metallic and nonmetallic forms, are coloured according to their stable nonmetallic forms.)

{{Periodic table (simple substance bonding)}}

{{Reflist|group=n}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

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• Summary of an ACS presentation on the [http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/cw/2010/08/26/acs-boston-2010-busting-chemical-myths/ "myth" of the dividing line] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170605182735/http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/cw/2010/08/26/acs-boston-2010-busting-chemical-myths/ |date=2017-06-05 }}

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