Mengapa Logam Dapat Menghantarkan Panas?

Daya hantar panas disebabkan adanya elektron yang dapat bergerak dengan bebas. bila bagian tertentu dipanaskan, maka elektron-elektron pada bagian logam tersebut akan menerima sejumlah energi sehingga energi kinetisnya bertambah dan gerakannya makin cepat. Elektron-elektron yang bergerak dengan cepat tersebut menyerahkan sebagian energi kinetisya kepada elektron lain sehingga seluruh bagian logam menjadi panas dan naik suhunya.

Teori awan elektron yang dikemukakan oleh Drude dan Lorentz pada awal abad ke-20

Menurut teori ini di dalam kristal logam, setiap atom melepaskan elektron valensinya sehingga membentuk awan elektron dan kation yang bermuatan positif dan tersusun rapat dalam awan elektron tersebut. Ion logam yang bermuatan positif tersebut terdapat pada jarak tertentu satu sama lain dalam kristalnya. Karena elektron valensi tidak terikat pada salah satu ion logam atau pasangan ion logam, tapi terdelokalisasi terhadap semua ion logam, maka elektron valensi tersebut bebas bergerak ke seluruh bagian dari kristal logam, sama halnya dengan molekul-molekul gas yang dapat bergerak dengan bebas dalam ruangan tertentu.

Jadi menurut teori ini, kristal logam terdiri dari kumpulan ion logam bermuatan positif di dalam larutan elektron yang mudah bergerak. Ikatan logam terdapat antara ion logam positif dan elektron yang mudah bergerak tersebut.Teori awan elektron juga disebut teori elektron bebas, teori larutan elektron atau fluida elektron secara kualitatif dapat menjelaskan berbagai sifat fisika dari logam, seperti sifat mengkilap, dapat menghantarkan listrik dan panas, dapat ditempa, dibengkokkan dan ditarik.

Diagram energi HCl dan HF

Why gold and copper are yellow and red?

Copper has a reddish, orangish, brownish, or red color because a thin layer of tarnish (including oxides) gradually forms on its surface when gases (especially oxygen) in the air react with it. But pure copper, when fresh, is actually a pinkish or peachy metal. Copper and gold are the only two elemental metals with a natural color other than gray or silver. The usual gray color of metals depends on their "electron sea" that is capable of absorbing and re-emitting photons over a wide range of frequencies. Copper has its characteristic color because of its band structure. In its liquefied state, a pure copper surface without ambient light appears somewhat greenish, a characteristic shared with gold. When liquid copper is in bright ambient light, it retains some of its pinkish luster. Copper occupies the same family of the periodic table as silver and gold, since they each have one s-orbital electron on top of a filled electron shell which forms metallic bonds. This similarity in electron structure makes them similar in many characteristics. All have very high thermal and electrical conductivity, and all are malleable metals. Among pure metals at room temperature, copper has the second highest electrical and thermal conductivity, after silver.
Mainly, gold appears to be metallic yellow. Gold, caesium and copper are the only elemental metals with a natural color other than gray or white. The usual gray color of metals depends on their "electron sea" that is capable of absorbing and re-emitting photons over a wide range of frequencies. Gold reacts differently, depending on subtle relativistic effects that affect the orbitals around gold atoms.
Silver, gold and copper have similar electron configurations, but we perceive them as having quite distinct colors. Electrons absorb energy from incident light, and are excited from lower energy levels to higher, vacant energy levels. The excited electrons can then return to the lower energies and emit the difference of energy as a photon. If an energy level (like the 3d band) holds many more electrons (than other energy levels) then the excitation of electrons from this highly occupied level to above the Fermi level will become quite important. Gold fulfills all the requirements for an intense absorption of light with energy of 2.3 eV (from the 3d band to above the Fermi level). The color we see is yellow, as the corresponding wavelengths are re-emitted. Copper has a strong absorption at a slightly lower energy, with orange being most strongly absorbed and re-emitted. In silver, the absorption peak lies in the ultraviolet region, at about 4 eV. As a result, silver maintains high reflectivity evenly across the visible spectrum, and we see it as a pure white. The lower energies (which in this case contain energies corresponding to the entire visible spectrum of color) are equally absorbed and re-emitted.

http://www.webexhibits.org/causesofcolor/9.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold#Color_of_gold

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper#Color