Gallium
A soft metal that melts in the warmth of your hand.
Inside the Gallium atom
Switch between Bohr and Quantum Cloud modes to compare a simple teaching model with a more realistic probability-based view, and follow the guided tour to explore the Gallium atom step by step.
Electron configuration
[Ar] 3d10 4s2 4p1
A neutral Gallium atom has 31 electrons (equal to its proton count). Choosing a different isotope above changes only the neutron count.
Shell distribution
Electrons fill inner shells before outer ones; the outermost (valence) shell drives the element's chemistry.
Physical & atomic properties
- State (room temp)
- Solid
- Melting point
- 303 K (30 °C)
- Boiling point
- 2673 K (2400 °C)
- Density
- 5.907 g/cm³
- Electronegativity
- 1.81 Pauling
- Atomic radius
- 130 pm
- 1st ionization energy
- 579 kJ/mol
- Category
- Post-transition metals
Discovery & naming
- Discovered
- 1875
- Discovered by
- Paul-Émile Lecoq de Boisbaudran
- Origin of name
- Latin 'Gallia', for France.
Notable uses
LEDs, high-speed semiconductors, and solar cells.
Where Gallium comes from
Several comparable sources
Both slow neutron capture in dying stars and rapid capture in explosive events contribute meaningfully.
Simplified origin map — many elements form through more than one astrophysical pathway.
Summary
- Atomic number
- 31
- Atomic mass
- 69.723
- Category
- Post-transition metals
- Group · Period
- 13 · 4
- Block
- p-block
- Shells
- 2 · 8 · 18 · 3