why does covalent bonding involve metalloids and non metals but not metals?

Question

I know it’s pretty basic but I just can’t wrap my hear around any of the explanations in my textbook/google

In: 20

Answer 1

You can have some covalent bonding with metals. The example I thought of is the “organomercury” category of compounds.

But it all comes down to how the outer electrons are positioned. In metals, the outer electrons are only weakly attracted to their nucleus. In nonmetals, those outer electrons are much more strongly attracted, so it’s much easier to get situations where they’re sharing, rather than just fully ionizing.