Metalloids

This term is no longer commonly used by chemists, however, it refers to elements that exhibit some properties of metals and nonmetals. These elements tend to be semiconductors. Silicon is an extremely important example of these elements. Without the semiconductive properties silicon you would not be reading this text right now as most microchips and microprocessors are made with silicon and without these processors computers as we now know them would not exist.

Some allotropes of elements exhibit more pronounced metal, metalloid or non-metal behavior than others. For example, for the element carbon, its diamond allotrope is clearly non-metallic, however the graphite allotrope displays limited electric conductivity more characteristic of a metalloid. Phosphorus, tin, selenium and bismuth also have allotropes which display borderline behavior.

See Also

Metals and Non-metals.