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Silicon, carbon, germanium, and a few other elements form covalently bonded solids. In these elements there are four electrons in the outer sp-shell, which is half filled. (The s p-shell is a hybrid formed from one s and one p subshell.) In the covalent bond an atom shares one valence (outer-shell) electron with each of its four nearest neighbour atoms. The...
Metallic bonds fall into two categories. The first is the case in which the valence electrons are from the s p-shells of the metal ions; this bonding is quite weak. In the second category the valence electrons are from partially filled d-shells, and this bonding is quite strong. The d-bonds dominate when both types of bonding are present.
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