chemistry question?

Question

i know the relative reactivity of metals increase as you go down the period table, and the relative reactivity of nonmetals decrease as you go down. but what about metalloids?

Answer 1

You have put your finger on a real problem in chemistry. It's called the "inert pair" effect. In particular, as you go down group IIIA, you get to thallium, and Tl+ is common, whereas Tl3+ is not. In group IVA, Sn(II) and Pb(II) are the more common oxidation states and Sn(IV) and Pb(IV) are not. It gets more iffy later, because certainly Bi(III) is the more common oxidation state, but who besides poisoned people know about the more favored oxidation state of polonium? A person who has explored the inert pair effect is Robert Thomas Sanderson in his many books. Maybe you can get one from a library: "Simple Inorganic Substances," "Chemical Periodicity,"and "Polar Covalence."

Answer 2

The reactivity of metalloids depends on the element they are reacting with.

Answer 3

nonmetals and metalloids are synonyms