What do boron and germanium have in common

This arrangement gives a three dimensional, continuous, silicon-oxygen network. A quartz crystal is a macromolecule of silicon dioxide. When the liquid cools, it does not crystallize readily but usually supercools and forms a glass, also called silica. The SiO 4 tetrahedra in glassy silica have a random arrangement characteristic of supercooled liquids, and the glass has some very useful properties.

Silica is highly transparent to both visible and ultraviolet light. For this reason, it is important in the manufacture of lamps that give radiation rich in ultraviolet light and in certain optical instruments that operate with ultraviolet light. The coefficient of expansion of silica glass is very low; therefore, rapid temperature changes do not cause it to fracture. CorningWare and other ceramic cookware contain amorphous silica.

Silicates are salts containing anions composed of silicon and oxygen. In nearly all silicates, sp 3 -hybridized silicon atoms occur at the centers of tetrahedra with oxygen at the corners.

There is a variation in the silicon-to-oxygen ratio that occurs because silicon-oxygen tetrahedra may exist as discrete, independent units or may share oxygen atoms at corners in a variety of ways. In addition, the presence of a variety of cations gives rise to the large number of silicate minerals.

Many ceramics are composed of silicates. By including small amounts of other compounds, it is possible to modify the physical properties of the silicate materials to produce ceramics with useful characteristics. The elements boron, silicon, germanium, arsenic, antimony, and tellurium separate the metals from the nonmetals in the periodic table. These elements, called metalloids or sometimes semimetals, exhibit properties characteristic of both metals and nonmetals.

The structures of these elements are similar in many ways to those of nonmetals, but the elements are electrical semiconductors. Boron has only s and p orbitals available, which can accommodate a maximum of four electron pairs. Unlike silicon, no d orbitals are available in boron. A mild solution of hydrofluoric acid would dissolve the silicate and would not harm the diamond. Skip to content Chapter Representative Metals, Metalloids, and Nonmetals. Learning Objectives By the end of this section, you will be able to:.

Describe the general preparation, properties, and uses of the metalloids Describe the preparation, properties, and compounds of boron and silicon. Chemistry End of Chapter Exercises Give the hybridization of the metalloid and the molecular geometry for each of the following compounds or ions. You may wish to review the chapters on chemical bonding and advanced covalent bonding for relevant examples. You may wish to review the chapter on chemical bonding. You may wish to review the chapter on electronic structure.

Classify each of the following molecules as polar or nonpolar. Name each of the following compounds: a TeO 2 b Sb 2 S 3 c GeF 4 d SiH 4 e GeH 4 Write a balanced equation for the reaction of elemental boron with each of the following most of these reactions require high temperature : a F 2 b O 2 c S d Se e Br 2 Why is boron limited to a maximum coordination number of four in its compounds?

If the mass of the hydride was 0. What is the molecular formula for the hydride? Suppose you discovered a diamond completely encased in a silicate rock. How would you chemically free the diamond without harming it? Glossary amorphous solid material such as a glass that does not have a regular repeating component to its three-dimensional structure; a solid but not a crystal borate compound containing boron-oxygen bonds, typically with clusters or chains as a part of the chemical structure polymorph variation in crystalline structure that results in different physical properties for the resulting compound silicate compound containing silicon-oxygen bonds, with silicate tetrahedra connected in rings, sheets, or three-dimensional networks, depending on the other elements involved in the formation of the compounds.

Literature was searched through Reprints and Permissions. Olesinski, R. Bulletin of Alloy Phase Diagrams 5, — Download citation. Issue Date : October Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:. Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative.

Skip to main content. Search SpringerLink Search. All are radioactive. The reactivity of the metalloids depends on the element with which they are reacting. Germanium itself is classified as a metalloid. What Makes Them Similar? Melting Point. Boiling Point. CAS Number. Neighborhood Elements of Boron. Neighborhood Elements of Germanium.

Abundance in Universe. Abundance in Sun. Abundance in Meteorites. Abundance in Earth's Crust. Abundance in Oceans. Abundance in Humans. Atomic Radius. Covalent Radius. Van der Waals Radius. Neutron Cross Section. Lattice Constant.

Lattice Angle. Space Group Name. Space Group Number. Crystal Structure. Simple Trigonal. Face Centered Cubic. Electron Configuration. Oxidation State.