does melting point depend on the structure of metals?

how does it change for close packed metallic structures?

Metals tend to have high melting and boiling points because of the strength of the metallic bond. The strength of the bond varies from metal to metal and depends on the number of electrons which each atom delocalises into the sea of electrons, and on the packing.

Group 1 metals like sodium and potassium have relatively low melting and boiling points mainly because each atom only has one electron to contribute to the bond - but there are other problems as well:

• Group 1 elements are also inefficiently packed (8-co-ordinated), so that they aren't forming as many bonds as most metals.

• They have relatively large atoms (meaning that the nuclei are some distance from the delocalised electrons) which also weakens the bond.

Thank You
Ruchi
Askiitians Faculty