For Students
The valence electrons, which in other substances produce bonding between individual atoms or small groups of atoms, are shared equally by all the atoms in a piece of a metal. These delocalized electrons are thus able to move over the whole piece of metal and provide the metallic lustre and good electrical and thermal conductivities of metals and alloys. Band theory explains that in such a system individual energy levels are replaced by a continuous region called a band, as in the density-of-states diagram for copper metal shown in the figure. This diagram shows that the number of electrons that ...(100 of 8893 words)