Enhance corrosion resistance: Alloys are more resistant to corrosion than pure metals. Metals in pure form are chemically reactive and can be easily corroded by the surrounding atmospheric gases and moisture. Alloying a metal increases the inertness of the metal, which, in turn, increases corrosion resistance.

Although alloying elements affect hardenability, they have a minor effect on hardness except to reduce it at high carbon levels by causing austenite to be retained. Alternative ways of improving the strength of alloy steels are: (1) Grain refinement, which increases strength and ductility.

Almost all metals are used as alloys—that is, mixtures of several elements—because these have properties superior to pure metals. Alloying is done for many reasons, typically to increase strength, increase corrosion resistance, or reduce costs.

There are two main types of alloys. These are called substitution alloys and interstitial alloys. In substitution alloys, the atoms of the original metal are literally replaced with atoms that have roughly the same size from another material. Brass, for example, is an example of a substitution alloy of copper and zinc.

Today, the most important are the alloy steels, broadly defined as steels containing significant amounts of elements other than iron and carbon. The principal alloying elements for steel are chromium, nickel, manganese, molybdenum, silicon, tungsten, vanadium, and boron.

Important Alloys, Their Composition, and Typical Uses

• Steel. This is hands down the most common metal in the modern world.
• Iron (Wrought or Cast) Even though this is a super old-fashioned metal (especially common during the “iron age”) it still has a lot of modern uses.
• Aluminum. As far as metals go, this is a really modern one.
• Magnesium.
• Copper.
• Brass.
• Bronze.
• Zinc.

tungsten

So, if we include the nonmetals group, halogens, and noble gases, all of the elements that are nonmetals are:

• Hydrogen (sometimes)
• Carbon.
• Nitrogen.
• Oxygen.
• Phosphorus.
• Sulfur.
• Selenium.
• Fluorine.

Seventeen elements are generally classified as nonmetals: most are gases (hydrogen, helium, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon, chlorine, argon, krypton, xenon and radon); one is a liquid (bromine); and a few are solids (carbon, phosphorus, sulfur, selenium, and iodine).

Chemically, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, arsenic and selenium are the non-metallic elements in the periodic table.

Iodine is a non-metallic, dark-gray/purple-black, lustrous, solid element. Iodine is the most electropositive halogen and the least reactive of the halogens even if it can still form compounds with many elements.

Iron and steel are the least expensive metals on Earth and make up 95 percent of the tonnage of all metals produced globally—that’s more than 1.3 billion tons per year! Iron does not occur on Earth’s surface as a metal; it must be extracted from iron ores like hematite and magnetite.

Pure metals are those metals that have not been alloyed with other metallic elements; commercially pure metals are 99% pure minimum. Pure metals are those metals that have not been alloyed with other metallic elements; commercially pure metals are 99% pure minimum.

Platinum

francium

Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin plumbum) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials….