Metallic Bonding & Giant Covalent Structures

Metallic bonding is the electrostatic attraction between a lattice of positively charged metal cations and a surrounding sea of delocalized valence electrons. Metal atoms have low ionization energies, so their outer electrons are held loosely. In the solid these valence electrons are released from individual atoms and are free to move throughout the whole structure, no longer belonging to any particular atom. The resulting positive ions are held together by their mutual attraction to this shared, mobile electron sea, which acts like a glue binding the lattice.

The strength of metallic bonding depends on two main factors: the charge on the metal cation, that is, the number of delocalized electrons contributed per atom, and the size of the cation. A metal that contributes more electrons and