Tin is used in protective coatings and alloys including bronze and solder. A tin can is commonly steel coated with tin, rather than solid tin. Molten tin also supports molten glass during float-glass production, helping create the smooth sheets used in windows.
FROM ELEMENT TO APPLICATION
AN ELEMENT IN CONTEXT
Why is a tin-plated steel container not simply a container made of tin?
Tin-plated steel
FOLLOW THIS RELATIONSHIP
Use steel for the body
Steel provides most of the container’s structure. Its shape and mechanical properties support the practical demands of making and using the container.
Explore the model (optional)
SnFORM → INTERACTION → CONSEQUENCE
Follow the explanation in either direction. These are authored steps, not a physical clock.
Optional: check your understanding
USE THE EXPLANATION
Which part supplies most of the structure in tin-plated steel?
Atomic identity, reference properties and structure models
INTERACTIVE 3D50 visible sites
An electron censusDrag to rotate · scroll or pinch to zoom
[Kr] 4d10 5s2 5p2. Grouping electrons by principal shell connects the neutral-atom configuration to periodic-table patterns.
What this representation means
A three-dimensional counting diagram. Dots are count markers, not measured electron positions; spherical placement and spacing are arbitrary. There are no electron trajectories here. Orbitals describe quantum states.
Tin's early history is inseparable from bronze, a copper-based used by several ancient societies. Bronze objects appear around the third millennium BCE, while surviving tin objects also show that people worked tin itself in antiquity. There is no defensible single modern-style discoverer. Its historical importance came from changing another metal's working properties, long before the differences between elements, compounds, and alloys were formalized.
Around 3000 BCE
Bronze working
Copper–tin bronze was used in ancient metalworking.
Second millennium BCE
Tin objects
Surviving Egyptian artifacts document ancient use of tin itself.
Cassiterite, tin dioxide, is an important tin . processing must transform this oxygen-containing compound into useful metal or other products. The contrast between cassiterite, a tin coating, and bronze shows three roles for the same element: a natural compound, an elemental layer, and an alloy ingredient.
Tin is a relatively soft metal with more than one solid structural form. Its metallic and gray forms illustrate allotropy: the same element can adopt different arrangements with different properties. In practical products, alloy composition, temperature history, and surface condition matter alongside the element's identity.
Each section links its supporting references. Descriptions and diagrams were authored for this atlas. Source checks completed. Source checks dated 2026-09-06.
CITE THIS PAGE
Family labels and the group-3 layout are teaching conventions. A table position does not establish an unknown bulk property. Electronic configurations refer to neutral atoms; ions and material environments require their own account.
Read each reference property together with its units, conditions and the reference information below.
Not yet recorded: electron affinity, second ionization energy, ground-state term symbol, van der waals radius, thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity, electrical resistivity, crystal structure, lattice parameter a, space group, abundance in seawater, abundance in the universe, annual production, supply-risk listing, hazard classification, biological role, cas registry number, pubchem cid, wikidata item. These families are declared and awaiting an ingestion run against the source each names; they are listed here rather than shown as empty rows.
Physical
Intended reference: CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics · CRC Press
Phase at 20 °C
solid
293.15 K, 101.325 kPa
Melting point in K
505.08 K
at standard pressure unless noted
Boiling point in K
2875 K
101.325 kPa
Density in g/cm³
7.29 g/cm³
solids and liquids at 293 K; gases at 273 K and 101.325 kPa
Atomic and electronic
Intended reference: Pauling electronegativity scale · Widely tabulated; original in The Nature of the Chemical Bond
Electronegativity in Pauling
1.96 Pauling
Pauling scale
First ionization energy in kJ/mol
708.6 kJ/mol
gas-phase neutral atom, ground state
Covalent radius in pm
139 pm
single-bond covalent radius
Common oxidation states
+2, +4
states met in ordinary compounds; not exhaustive
Occurrence and identity
Intended reference: CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics · CRC Press
Abundance in the crust in mg/kg
2.3 mg/kg
upper continental crust, mass fraction
Has stable isotopes
Yesderived
Discovery year
Not recorded
WHERE IT SITS AMONG ITS NEIGHBORS
Electronegativity across period 5
Sn 1.96 Pauling · Tin
Electronegativity across period 5. Exact values.
Rb
0.82
Sr
0.95
Y
1.22
Zr
1.33
Nb
1.6
Mo
2.16
Tc
1.9
Ru
2.2
Rh
2.28
Pd
2.2
Ag
1.93
Cd
1.69
In
1.78
Sn
1.96
Sb
2.05
Te
2.1
I
2.66
Xe
2.6
Electronegativity down group 14
Sn 1.96 Pauling · Tin
Electronegativity down group 14. Exact values.
C
2.55
Si
1.9
Ge
2.01
Sn
1.96
Pb
2.33
The trend uses the same reference-property values as the periodic table. Elements with no recorded value are left out of the line rather than drawn at zero.
