Metalloid

The word metalloid comes from the Latin metallum ("metal") and the Greek oeidḗs ("resembling in form or appearance"). However, there is no standard definition of a metalloid and no complete agreement on which elements are metalloids. Despite the lack of specificity, the term remains in use in the literature.

The six commonly recognised metalloids are boron, silicon, germanium, arsenic, antimony and tellurium. Five elements are less frequently so classified: carbon, aluminium, selenium, polonium and astatine. On a standard periodic table, all eleven elements are in a diagonal region of the p-block extending from boron at the upper left to astatine at lower right. Some periodic tables include a dividing line between metals and nonmetals, and the metalloids may be found close to this line.

Typical metalloids have a metallic appearance, may be brittle and are only fair conductors of electricity. They can form alloys with metals, and many of their other physical properties and chemical properties are intermediate between those of metallic and nonmetallic elements. They and their compounds are used in alloys, biological agents, catalysts, flame retardants, glasses, optical storage and optoelectronics, pyrotechnics, semiconductors, and electronics.

The term metalloid originally referred to nonmetals. Its more recent meaning, as a category of elements with intermediate or hybrid properties, became widespread in 1940–1960. Metalloids are sometimes called semimetals, a practice that has been discouraged, as the term semimetal has a more common usage as a specific kind of electronic band structure of a substance. In this context, only arsenic and antimony are semimetals, and commonly recognised as metalloids.

A metalloid is an element that possesses a preponderance of properties in between, or that are a mixture of, those of metals and nonmetals, and which is therefore hard to classify as either a metal or a nonmetal. This is a generic definition that draws on metalloid attributes consistently cited in the literature. Difficulty of categorisation is a key attribute. Most elements have a mixture of metallic and nonmetallic properties, and can be classified according to which set of properties is more pronounced. Only the elements at or near the margins, lacking a sufficiently clear preponderance of either metallic or nonmetallic properties, are classified as metalloids.

Boron, silicon, germanium, arsenic, antimony, and tellurium are commonly recognised as metalloids. Depending on the author, one or more from selenium, polonium, or astatine are sometimes added to the list. Boron sometimes is excluded, by itself, or with silicon. Sometimes tellurium is not regarded as a metalloid. The inclusion of antimony, polonium, and astatine as metalloids has been questioned.

Several other elements are occasionally classified as metalloids. These elements include hydrogen, beryllium, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, zinc, gallium, tin, iodine, lead, bismuth, radon, flerovium, moscovium, livermorium, tennessine, and oganesson. However, due to relativistic effects and short half-lives, Fl to Og are hard to place into metalloids. The term metalloid has also been used for elements that exhibit metallic lustre and electrical conductivity, and that are amphoteric, such as arsenic, antimony, vanadium, chromium, molybdenum, tungsten, tin, lead, and aluminium. The p-block metals, and nonmetals (such as carbon or nitrogen) that can form alloys with metals or modify their properties have also occasionally been considered as metalloids.

No widely accepted definition of a metalloid exists, nor any division of the periodic table into metals, metalloids, and nonmetals; Hawkes questioned the feasibility of establishing a specific definition, noting that anomalies can be found in several attempted constructs. Classifying an element as a metalloid has been described by Sharp as "arbitrary".