Metallic bonding constitutes the electrostatic attractive forces between the delocalized electrons, called conduction electrons, gathered in an electron cloud and the positively charged metal ions. Understood as the sharing of "free" electrons among a lattice of positively charged ions (cations), metallic bonding is sometimes compared with that of molten salts; however, this simplistic view[which?] holds true for very few[which?] metals. In a more quantum-mechanical view, the conduction electrons divide their density equally over all atoms that function as neutral (non-charged) entities.[citation needed] Metallic bonding accounts for many physical properties of metals, such as strength, ductility, thermal and electrical conductivity, opacity, and luster.[1][2][3][4]
Although the term "metallic bond" is often used in contrast to the term "covalent bond", it is preferable[by whom?] to use the term metallic bonding, because this type of bonding is collective in nature and a single "metallic bond" does not exist. Metallic bond is not the only type of chemical bonding a metal can exhibit, even as a simple substance. For example, elemental gallium consists of covalently-bound pairs of atoms in both liquid and solid state—these pairs form a crystal lattice with metallic bonding between them. Another example of a metal–metal covalent bond is mercurous ion (Hg2+
2).

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