What Are The Non metals In The Periodic Table?

If you take a look at the periodic table, you’ll spot the nonmetals mostly gathered over on the right side (though hydrogen breaks the mold and sits up in the top left corner).

What sets nonmetals apart is pretty clear once you get to know them: they generally have lower melting and boiling points, and they’re not much use if you’re trying to conduct heat or electricity.

In fact, they resist it, thanks to their high ionization energies and electronegativity. Plus, unlike metals, nonmetals don’t have that shiny, metallic look—no matter how much you polish them.

While metals are known for being flexible—you can hammer them into thin sheets or draw them out into wires—nonmetals are the opposite. Their solids are usually brittle; try to bend one and it’ll likely snap.

Chemically, nonmetals have a habit of grabbing extra electrons to complete their outer shells, so you’ll often find their atoms carrying a negative charge. The oxidation numbers you’ll see with nonmetals are often -2, -3, or sometimes even as high as +4 or as low as -4.

What are Nonmetals?

In the world of chemistry, a nonmetal is simply an element that doesn’t show most of the classic metallic traits. Nonmetals can show up as colorless gases, but some are actually solids with surprisingly high melting points and a bit of shine.

What really makes them different is how their electrons behave. In nonmetals, electrons tend to stay put, which means nonmetals don’t conduct heat or electricity well, and their solid forms tend to crumble or break instead of bending.

Compare that to metals, where electrons move around freely. That’s why metals are such good conductors and can be shaped without much fuss. Nonmetal atoms, on the other hand, pull electrons toward themselves during reactions, so they’re often found forming acidic compounds.

Here’s a fun fact: hydrogen and helium, both nonmetals, actually make up about 99% of all ordinary matter we see in the universe just by mass alone.

Back here on Earth, five nonmetals hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and silicon are the main players that make up the crust, atmosphere, oceans, and basically all living things.

It’s hard to overstate how important nonmetals are to life and technology. Every living thing is made mostly from just four nonmetals: hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen.

And when you look around whether it’s medicines, electronics, lighting, or just everyday household stuff nonmetals are everywhere, each with their own unique job.

List of Nonmetals (Element Group)

There are 7 elements that belong to the nonmetals group:

• Hydrogen (sometimes considered an alkali metal)
• Carbon
• Nitrogen
• Oxygen
• Phosphorus
• Sulfur
• Selenium

Although these are the elements in the group nonmetals, there are two additional element groups that could be included, since the halogens and noble gases also are types of nonmetals.

the non-metals in the periodic table

If you look at the periodic table, you’ll notice that metals mostly hang out to the left of that zigzag line (with hydrogen as the odd one out—it’s a nonmetal but sits up in the top left corner).

On the flip side, the nonmetals are clustered to the right, and the elements that touch that dividing line are what we call metalloids.

Nonmetals have some distinctive properties: they tend to hold onto their electrons pretty tightly, thanks to their high ionization energies and strong electron affinities. Basically, they’re good at grabbing extra electrons but not so keen on giving them up.

Since they usually have more valence electrons, most nonmetals are just a step or two away from having a full set of eight (that so-called octet).

When a nonmetal gains enough electrons to reach that magic number—matching the electron count of the nearest noble gas in Group 8A—it turns into a negatively charged ion, or anion.

The charge you end up with actually depends on the group number: for example, nonmetals in Group 7A pick up one electron to form a 1- ion, those in Group 6A form 2- ions, and the Group 5A elements form 3- ions.

As for the noble gases in Group 8A, their valence shells are already full, so they’re pretty unreactive—they rarely bother gaining or losing electrons, and they don’t usually form compounds, whether ionic or molecular.

When it comes to ionic compounds, what really holds them together is the powerful attraction between positively charged cations and negatively charged anions, forming what’s known as a crystal lattice.

These electrostatic forces are seriously strong, which is why ionic compounds tend to have such high melting points. Take sodium chloride (NaCl) as an example—it doesn’t melt until it hits 801°C. Aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃) is even more extreme, with a melting point of 2054°C.

Ionic compounds aren’t just high-melting—they’re also hard, rigid, and brittle. In their solid state, the ions are locked in place, so the material doesn’t conduct electricity. But if you dissolve one in water, those ions are free to move, and suddenly the solution can carry an electric current.

Now, when two nonmetals get together, they don’t go the ionic route. Instead, they tend to share electrons, forming covalent bonds and producing neutral molecules. Don’t forget—hydrogen counts as a nonmetal here, so if it bonds with another nonmetal, you’ll get a covalent bond as well.

Molecular compounds (those formed by covalent bonding) can show up as gases, liquids, or solids with relatively low melting points. There’s a whole range of substances in this category, covering everything from the air you breathe to the sugar in your coffee.

List of All Elements That Are Nonmetals

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

Atomic number	Symbol	Name of element
1	H	Hydrogen
2	He	Helium
6	C	Carbon
7	N	Nitrogen
8	O	Oxygen
9	F	Fluorine
10	Ne	Neon
15	P	Phosphorus
16	S	Sulfur
17	Cl	Chlorine
18	Ar	Argon
34	Se	Selenium
35	Br	Bromine
36	Kr	Krypton
53	I	Iodine
54	Xe	Xenon
85	At	Astatine
86	Rn	Radon

Properties of Nonmetals

In general, non-metals are brittle, dull, and have poor conductors of heat and electricity. They tend to have lower melting points than metals. Most of the nonmetals exist in two of the three states of matter at room temperature: gases and solids, except bromine, which exists as a liquid.

Nonmetals have high ionization energies and electronegativities. Most nonmetals have the ability to gain electrons easily. Nonmetals display a wide range of chemical properties and reactivities.

Physical Properties of Nonmetals

If you look across the periodic table at the nonmetal side, a clear pattern shows up:

• Ionization energy is high. Pulling an electron off a nonmetal atom costs a lot of energy.
• Electronegativity is high too. These atoms tug hard on shared electrons and often just grab extra ones outright.
• They’re electrical insulators. Free-moving electrons are scarce, so current doesn’t flow well through them.
• No shiny sheen. In solid form, they’re usually dull rather than lustrous.
• Heat doesn’t travel through them easily. They’re poor thermal conductors.
• Fragile when solid. Instead of bending, they crack or shatter—classic brittleness.
• Low density. For their size, they’re relatively light.
• Sound transmission is lousy. Strike a piece of sulfur or phosphorus and you don’t get that metallic “ring.”
• Electron gain is common. In reactions, they tend to accept electrons rather than lose them.
• All three common states appear. At room temperature you can find nonmetals as solids (sulfur), liquids (bromine), or gases (oxygen).
• Their oxides are usually acidic. Combine them with oxygen and you often get acidic compounds.
• They act as oxidizing agents. They like to take electrons from other species.
• Valence shells hold four to eight electrons. That outer layer is more than half full, which explains a lot of the behavior above.

Chemical Properties of Nonmetals

The chemical properties of nonmetals:

• Heat and electricity? Most non‑metals don’t carry either very well. Two oddballs do: graphite and gas carbon can conduct.
• Shape matters: Unlike metals, you can’t hammer non‑metals into sheets or pull them into wires. They’re generally neither malleable nor ductile.
• Who do they like to react with? More often than not, non‑metals prefer reacting with metals rather than with fellow non‑metals. When they do combine with each other, it typically needs a high temperature push.
• In the air at room temp: Most just sit there quietly. A glaring exception is white phosphorus, which catches fire on contact with air and turns into its oxide.
• In water: Generally unbothered. Chlorine is a notable exception—it dissolves and makes the solution acidic.
• Density check: As a group, non‑metals tend to have low densities.
• Alloys? Not really their thing. (There are some grey areas: elements like carbon, silicon, and phosphorus do end up in alloy systems or alloy-like materials.)
• State of matter: You’ll find non‑metals as solids, liquids, and gases at room temperature—so they’re spread across all three states.
• No one-size-fits-all reactivity: Each non‑metal has its own style of reacting. Lumping them together is handy for study, but chemically, they’re a mixed bunch.
• Halogen drama: In the classic school-lab displacement tests (leaving fluorine out of the picture), chlorine outmuscles bromine and iodine. So the trend you usually learn is Cl > Br > I, which is why chlorine can kick bromine out of sodium bromide (NaBr) and iodine out of sodium iodide (NaI).
• Ionic solids: When a highly electronegative non‑metal grabs electrons from alkali or alkaline earth metals, you get ionic compounds—solid salts, basically.

Examples of Nonmetals

Examples of nonmetals include hydrogen, carbon, chlorine, helium, fluorine, nitrogen, phosphorus, and selenium.

Nonmetal Gas Elements

Most nonmetals show up as colorless, scentless gases when you’re at ordinary room temperature. Think hydrogen, helium, nitrogen, oxygen, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon. Our air is mostly two of them: roughly 78% nitrogen and about 20% oxygen.

Chlorine breaks that “no smell” rule—it’s a yellow‑green gas with a sharp bite that can sting your nose if the concentration’s high. If you’ve ever walked into an over‑chlorinated pool area, you know the vibe. Fluorine is another pale yellow gas, but even nastier: harsh to inhale and far more toxic. Radon is a different kind of problem—it’s unstable and radioactive. It can seep up from the ground into basements, so buildings in high‑radon areas often need active ventilation to keep levels down.

Bromine is the oddball of the bunch. At room temperature it’s a reddish‑brown liquid that readily turns into a deep orange vapor. It’s the only nonmetal that’s a liquid under these conditions. Like chlorine and fluorine, it has a strong, unpleasant smell and isn’t something you want to breathe in.

Solid Nonmetal Elements

Among the remaining nonmetals—carbon, phosphorus, sulfur, selenium, and iodine—all are solids at room temperature. Each one can show up in several solid forms (allotropes), though a few versions are the ones you bump into most often.

Take carbon: you usually meet it as graphite, but it also turns up as diamond. Sulfur’s familiar face is that brittle, lemon-yellow solid with the faint “rotten egg” whiff. Phosphorus is a shape-shifter too; one allotrope, white phosphorus, can even exist as a gas and is notorious for bursting into flame when it hits oxygen.

Iodine tends to appear as a brown solid that doesn’t bother melting much—it just skips straight to those striking purple vapors. And selenium? It also has multiple solid forms, adding to the theme of variety across this group.

Noble Gases

Six nonmetal elements wear the “noble gas” badge: helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and the radioactive outlier, radon. If you glance at a standard periodic table, they’re the vertical line on the far right. The nickname “noble” sticks because they almost never mingle chemically with the rest of the crowd.

What do they have in common? They’re all invisible to the eye (colorless), give off no smell, and don’t burn. Their outer electron shells are already packed, which means the atoms barely notice one another—so the forces pulling them together are weak.

Result: their melting and boiling points are extremely low. Even the heavier ones—heavier than plenty of elements that are solids—hang out as gases under ordinary lab conditions.

On the numbers side, these elements sport high ionization energies, essentially zero (or even negative) electron affinities, and comparatively high electronegativities. And while they used to be considered completely inert, chemists have now made hundreds of noble-gas compounds (the list keeps growing). Most of those show up when oxygen or fluorine teams up with krypton, xenon, or radon.

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