The conversion of metals from their ores to more useful forms is called metallurgy, which consists of three general steps: mining, separation and concentration, and reduction.
The Earth formed from the same cloud of matter that formed the Sun, but the planets acquired different compositions during the formation and evolution of the solar system. In turn, the natural history of the Earth caused parts of this planet to have differing concentrations of the elements.
The oldest, and still the most common smelting process for oxide ores involves heating them in the presence of carbon. Originally, charcoal was used, but industrial-scale smelting uses coke, a crude form of carbon prepared by pyrolysis (heating) of coal. It is possible to isolate many of the representative metals by chemical reduction using other elements as reducing agents. In general, chemical reduction is much less expensive than electrolysis, and for this reason, chemical reduction is the m
Hydrometallurgy involves the use of aqueous chemistry for the recovery of metals from ores, concentrates, and recycled or residual materials.This process is used in extraction of less electro positive or less reactive metals like gold and silver. Hydrometallurgy is typically divided into three general areas: Leaching, Solution concentration and purification, and Metal recovery
Electrometallurgy is a common extraction process for the more reactive metals, e.g., for aluminum and metals above it in the electrochemical series. It is one method of extracting copper and in the purification of copper. During electrolysis, electrons are being added directly to the metal ions at the cathode (the negative electrode). The downside (particularly in the aluminum case) is the cost of the electricity. An advantage is that it can produce very pure metals.
Metals have several qualities that are unique, such as the ability to conduct electricity, a low ionization energy, and a low electronegativity (so they will give up electrons easily, i.e., they are cations). Their physical properties include a lustrous (shiny) appearance, and they are malleable and ductile. In the 1900's, Paul Drüde came up with the sea of electrons theory by modeling metals as a mixture of atomic cores (atomic cores = positive nuclei + inner shell of electrons) and valence ele
An alloy is a mixture of metals that has bulk metallic properties different from those of its constituent elements. Alloys can be formed by substituting one metal atom for another of similar size in the lattice (substitutional alloys), by inserting smaller atoms into holes in the metal lattice (interstitial alloys), or by a combination of both. Although the elemental composition of most alloys can vary over wide ranges, certain metals combine in only fixed proportions to form intermetallics.
This page explains what a transition metal is in terms of its electronic structure, and then goes on to look at the general features of transition metal chemistry. These include variable oxidation state (oxidation number), complex ion formation, coloured ions, and catalytic activity.
The elements tend to become more polarizable going across the d block and higher oxidation states become less stable; higher oxidation states become more stable going down a group.
