Condensed periodic table excerpt highlighting elements counted as nonmetals[n 1]
usually/always counted as a nonmetal
sometimes counted as a nonmetal
The status of astatine (At) has not been confirmed; it is treated in this article as a metal, as theory and experiments suggest.[1] The metallic or nonmetallic status of copernicium (Cn), flerovium (Fl), and oganesson (Og) has not been confirmed.
Day to day costs of nonmetals (including metalloids which are here counted as nonmetals) will vary depending on purity, quantity,[n 2] market conditions, and supplier surcharges.[4]
Based on the available literature as of April 2023, the cited costs of most nonmetals are less than the US$0.74 per gram cost of silver.[5] The exceptions are boron, phosphorus, germanium, xenon, and radon (notionally):
Boron costs around $25 per gram for 99.7% pure polycrystalline chunks with a particle size of about 1 cm.[6] Earlier, in 1997, boron was quoted at $280 per gram for polycrystalline 4-to-6-mm-diameter rods of 99.999% purity,[7] about 10 times the then $28.35 per gram cost of gold.[8]
In 2020, phosphorus in its most-stable black form could "cost up to $1,000 per gram",[9] more than 15 times the cost of gold, whereas ordinary red phosphorus, in 2017, was priced at about $3.40 per kilogram.[10] Researchers hoped to be able to reduce the cost of black phosphorus to as low as $1 per gram.[9]
Germanium and xenon cost about $1.30 and $7.60 per gram.[11]
Up to 2013, radon was available from the National Institute of Standards and Technology for $1,636 per 0.2 ml unit of issue, equivalent to about $86,000,000 per gram, with no indication of a discount for bulk quantities.[12]
Additional factors associated with the higher costs of some nonmetals include relative scarcity (Ge, Xe)[13] and costly production techniques (B, P, Ge).[14][9][13]
^The 28 lanthanide and actinide metals, which normally appear below the main body of the table, are not shown here
^For example, as at April 2023, the commercial price of silicon was $4 per pound or $0.0088 per gram.[2] On the other hand, the price quoted for a 335 gram sample of silicon for hobbyists and science enthusiasts was about $57, or 0.170 per gram, or about 20 times the commercial price.[3]
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