6.1.3: Periodic Trends- Metals, Semiconductors, and Insulators
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As we consider periodic trends in the electronic properties of materials, it is important to review some of the key bonding trends we have learned in earlier chapters:
- Going down the periodic table, atoms in solids tend to adopt structures with higher coordination numbers.
- The second row of the periodic table is special, with strong s-p hybridization and π-bonding between atoms.
- Electrons in higher quantum shells are less strongly bound, so the energy difference between bonding and antibonding orbitals becomes smaller for heavier atoms.
We also know that most of the elements in the periodic table are metals, but the elements in the top right corner are insulating under ordinary conditions (1 atm. pressure) and tend to obey the octet rule in their compounds.
At the transition between metals and non-metals in the periodic table we encounter a crossover in electronic properties, as well as in other properties such as the acidity of the oxides (see Ch. 3). The group of elements at the border is loosely referred to as the metalloids. Several of these elements (such as C, Sn, and As) can exist as different allotropes that can be metals, insulators, or something in between.
A more rigorous delineation of the electronic properties of these elements (and of many compounds) can be made by considering their band structures and the temperature dependence of the electronic conductivity . As we have previously discussed, metals have partially filled energy bands, meaning that the Fermi level intersects a partially filled band. With increasing temperature, metals become poorer conductors because lattice vibrations (which are called phonons in the physics literature) scatter the mobile valence electrons. In contrast, semiconductors and insulators, which have filled and empty bands, become better conductors at higher temperature, since some electrons are thermally excited to the lowest empty band. The distinction between insulators and semiconductors is arbitrary, and from the point of view of metal-insulator transitions, all semiconductors are insulators. We typically call an insulator a semiconductor if its band gap (E gap ) is less than about 3 eV. A semimetal is a material that has a band gap near zero, examples being single sheets of sp 2 -bonded carbon (graphene) and elemental Bi. Like a narrow gap semiconductor, a semimetal has higher conductivity at higher temperature.