Metallic Bond

Metallic Bond

Metallic bonding constitutes the electrostatic attractive forces between the delocalized electrons, called conduction electrons, gathered in an electron cloud, and the positively charged metal ions. Understood as the sharing of "free" electrons among a lattice of positively charged ions (cations), metallic bonding is sometimes compared with that of molten salts; however, this simplistic view holds true for very few metals. In a more quantum-mechanical view, the conduction electrons divide their density equally over all atoms that function as neutral (non-charged) entities. Metallic bonding accounts for many physical properties of metals, such as strength, malleability, ductility, thermal and electrical conductivity, opacity, and luster.

Although the term "metallic bond" is often used in contrast to the term "covalent bond", it is preferable to use the term metallic bonding, because this type of bonding is collective in nature and a single "metallic bond" does not exist. Not all metals exhibit metallic bonding: one such example is the mercurous ion (Hg2+
2), which forms covalent metal-metal bonds.