Talk:Metallic bond

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can anyone please explain in more detail the following sentence which is part of the article: "the electrons involved in that interaction are delocalized across the crystalline structure of the metal" Thanks —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.25.189.23 (talk • contribs) 09:29, 30 September 2006 UTC-7.

the metal naturally forms a crystal structure that usually has many zones (another topic). but across the entire sample of metal, the metal nuclei are in various places and the valence electrons swarm about all nuclei, effectively bonding every nucleus to every other one. because of that, the electrons are delocalized meaning they are in even more random places than usual, belong to no single atom, and are more impossible to find Arc88 04:01, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Name

Would it be better to move this to metallic bonding, to tie in with the opening words and the related category? Honbicot 21:59, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

If there are such things as metallic bonding and metallic bonds, why am I redirected from "Metallic bonding" to "Metallic bond", which begins by discussing, not the metallic bond, but metallic bonding? I like the idea of chemical bonds falling into neat categories. "Metallic bond" makes sense, no matter how nebulous the conceptualization. But this article, even if it does little more than to introduce the concept of metallic bonding under a heading elsewhere in cyberspace, ought to address "metallic bonds" per se, and right up front, in my jaunty opinion. D021317c (talk) 14:26, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Apples and oranges

Of metallic bonds, I read (marvelously) that they may be compared to molten salts. How can pourable substances like molten salts be likened to countable links among discrete objects? It's not that I don't sense an analogy, but that it shouldn't go unexplained. I think what is meant is that the charge of free electrons in a metal is delocalized, as it is in a molten salt. Right? Would it be accurate to say, then, that the bonds among atoms in metals can be compared to the bonds among atoms in molten salts? I wonder how comparable they are to the bonds among dissociated salt ions in water. I wonder whether the charge can be considered an electron cloud, like that surrounding the nucleus of an atom, and to what extent the analogy might hold. D021317c (talk) 14:26, 20 November 2007 (UTC)