Question

What elements are insulators?

Answer 1

Please Help

Answer 2

one characteristic of an element that makes it a good insulator is that the outer electrons are tightly bound.

Answer 3

By the electrons being tightly bound, this prevents nearly all electron flow through them

Answer 4

Copper, for instance is a good one. Can you think of others where the electrons may be tightly bound? Think of their size and how many electrons they hold in their s, p, AND d orbitals.

Answer 5

Did you just call copper an insulator. You what bro.

Answer 6

u w0t m8t?

Conductivity pertains to the types of bonds atoms make. For example metal are good conductors because they have "metallic bonds", essentially saying that these atoms exist in a "sea" of electrons - this is actually due to inner (d or f) electrons not involved in bonding that can flow through when there is a difference in potential across the "sea".

This differs from covalent compounds where electrons are fixed in positions (by this i mean within a certain volume not static) and can't flow through. The picture is a little more complicated though. Allotropes of carbon, like charcoal or diamond don't conduct electricity, but graphene (1 layer of graphite, graphite is pencil lead) does conduct electricity. This is because the way they are bonded. Diamond is a tetrahedral network of \(sp^3\) carbons, while graphene is a planar \(sp^2\) network of conjugated carbons and electrons can flow through the \(\pi\) system - both of these are essentially 1 molecule.

Answer 7

Are you hating on my swag?

Answer 8

ya dun kno