How many metals are on the periodic table?

Question

Accepted Answer

There are about 92 metals on the periodic table out of 118 elements, which is roughly four fifths of all known elements, though the exact count depends on how borderline elements are classed. Using the ten families on this site, the metals are 6 alkali metals, 6 alkaline earth metals, 38 transition metals, 12 post-transition metals, 15 lanthanides and 15 actinides, totaling 92. The other elements are 6 metalloids (boron, silicon, germanium, arsenic, antimony and tellurium) and 20 nonmetals, made up of 7 reactive nonmetals (hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, sulfur and selenium), 6 halogens and 7 noble gases. Other sources give 91 to 95 metals, depending on whether astatine and polonium are counted as metals or metalloids and whether predicted properties of the superheavy elements are trusted. Metals are mostly found to the left and center of the table and are usually shiny, malleable, ductile and good conductors. The two f-block rows alone supply 30 of the metals, the 15 lanthanides and 15 actinides, and the d-block supplies most of the rest. Of the 118 elements, 11 are gases and 2 are liquids at room temperature, and mercury is the only liquid metal. Some metals are rare or exist only in laboratories: the elements from americium (95) to oganesson (118) are synthetic, and most of the superheavy ones have been made only a few atoms at a time, so their metallic nature is predicted from their position. Some borderline cases change the count by one or two, such as astatine, which is placed with the halogens here but is predicted to behave like a metal, and polonium, which is a post-transition metal here but is sometimes called a metalloid. The common school answer is therefore that about 80 percent of the elements are metals. In simple terms, most elements on the table are metals, found on the left and across the center.