Question

Metallic character of elements decreases from left to right in a period while it increases while in moving down a group. Explain

Answer 1

The metallic character of elements decreases from left to right in a period while it increases while moving down a group because,

• Metallic character decreases while we move from left to right while non metallic character increases.
• This is due to an increase in ionization enthalpy and electron gain enthalpy due to an increase in effective nuclear charge.
• And metallic character increases while we move down the group because electron shielding causes the atomic radius to increase, thus the outer electrons ionize more readily than electrons in smaller atoms.