Comment on Indeed it is.
threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 2 months agoI [can’t] recall ever hearing about a chemical bond between two metals
That’s what alloys are. Brass, bronze, pewter, etc. Alloys containing mercury get the special name “amalgam”, for some reason.
lolcatnip@reddthat.com 2 months ago
Does that mean that a piece of metal is essentially one giant molecule?
Sal@mander.xyz 2 months ago
Essentially, yes.
Whether the term “molecule” technically includes or excludes a piece of metal is a bit more tricky. I lean towards “no” more than “yes” because there are some important differences between what we generally call a “molecule” and how we think about a glassy or a crystalline solid. But I think both positions are arguable. If we are not being pedantic, then essentially yeah.
threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Kind of. Metallic bonding is a bit different from covalent bonding in that the electrons are delocalized over the entire material rather than trapped between specific atoms. The atoms are still held to each other by overlapping electron clouds though, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.