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This is a list of lists of elements classified as metalloids, organised in chronological order. Lists of metalloids differ since there is no rigorous definition of metalloid (or its occasional alias, 'semi-metal'). Individual lists share common ground, with variations occurring at the margins. The elements most often regarded as metalloids are boron, silicon, germanium, arsenic, antimony and tellurium.
Overview
Chronological list
In the table, each 'source row' shows which elements are included in the metalloid list in that source. A hashmark (#) next to an element means that its inclusion as a metalloid, in that particular list, is qualified in some way by the author(s). The 'citations' row gives a count of the number of times the element has appeared in all of the metalloid lists; a matching entry is counted as one, the same with a hashmark is counted as a half, and a blank counts as a zero. The frequency row shows these counts as percentages.
- # (hashmark) next to an element: its inclusion as a metalloid, in that particular list, is qualified in some way by the author(s). It is counted as 0.5Â citation.
There is an average of 7.15 elements per metalloid list.
Appearance frequency clusters
Elements cited in the listed sources (as of August 2011; n = 194) have appearance frequencies that occur in clusters of comparable values. The diamonds in the graph mark the mean appearance frequency of each cluster. Cluster 1 (93%) = B, Si, Ge, As, Sb, Te; cluster 2 (44%) = Po, At; cluster 3 (24%) = Se; cluster 4 (9%) = C, Al; cluster 5 (5%) = Be, P, Bi; cluster 6 (3%) = Sn; and cluster 7 (1%) = H, Ga, S, I, Pb, Fl, Uup, Lv, Uus. The resulting geometric trend line has the formula y = 199.47eâˆ'0.7423x and an R2 value of 0.9962.
Elements regarded as metalloids
The elements commonly classified as metalloids are boron, silicon, germanium, arsenic, antimony and tellurium. The status of polonium and astatine is not settled. Most authors recognise one or the other, or both, as metalloids; Herman, Hoffmann and Ashcroft, on the basis of relativistic modelling, predict astatine will be a monatomic metal. One or more of carbon, aluminium, phosphorus, selenium, tin or bismuth, these being periodic table neighbours of the elements commonly classified as metalloids, are sometimes recognised as metalloids. Selenium, in particular, is commonly designated as a metalloid in environmental chemistry on account of similarities in its aquatic chemistry with that of arsenic and antimony. There are fewer references to beryllium, in spite of its periodic table position adjoining the dividing line between metals and nonmetals. Isolated references in the literature can also be found to the categorisation of other elements as metalloids. These elements include: hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur, zinc, gallium, iodine, lead, and radon (citations are for references other than those listed above).