Why are metallic compounds malleable?

Metals are described as malleable because they can be beaten into sheets. They are also ductile, as they can be pulled out into wires. This is because of the ability of the atoms to roll over each other into new positions without breaking the metallic bond.

Metallic bonds result from the attraction between the nuclei of metal atoms and the sea of delocalized electrons surrounding them. The outermost electrons in metal atoms are somewhat loosely attracted to their parent nuclei so as they move about they experience attractions to the nuclei of neighboring atoms in the metallic crystal, which is an orderly arrangement of metal atoms. In general the more outer electrons an element has, the stronger the metallic bonds and the higher the melting point.

allows for electrons to move between atoms more easily than other types of . This allows bonds between atoms to easily be broken and then re-form. This allows the metal to be bent.

In that have covalent or , bonds are not easily broken then re-formed and that is why this substances may be very hard and sometimes brittle.