Question

What is a metalloid?

Answer 1

A metalloid is any chemical element which has properties in between those of metals and nonmetals, or that has a mixture of them.
The six commonly recognized metalloids are boron, silica, germanium, arsenic, antimony, and tellurium. Most of these elements are important industrial materials, being used to make transistors and other semiconductor devices, ceramics, solar batteries, and certain polymers.
Metalloids are usually brittle, somewhat shiny solids that behave as electrical insulators at room temperature but become comparable to metals as electrical conductors when heated or when small quantities of certain elements are introduced into the lattices of their crystalline structures.