Boiling Point of Metals

The boiling point of a metal refers to the temperature at which the vapour pressure of the liquid metal matches the pressure of its surroundings, leading to the transformation from a liquid state into vapour. This should not be confused with the melting point of metal which refers to the temperature at which the metal begins to transform from a solid phase into a liquid phase.

Metal Boiling Temperatures

*Note that these values are for pure metals under standard atmospheric pressure. Values for alloys will deviate depending on the alloying elements.

When we heat a substance, in our case a metal, it gains energy. This energy helps overcome the forces that hold the metal ions and electrons together. The more energy required to overcome these forces, the higher the melting or boiling point of the metal. Since different metals have different strengths of attraction among their ions, they have different melting and boiling points.

For example, the boiling point of copper is 2575°C, aluminium starts to boil at 2480°C, gold at 2800°C, and iron at 2870°C.

The metal with the highest boiling point is tungsten (5550°C) and the metal with the lowest boiling point is mercury (357°C).