ElementsWhat is tin?
Tin is a soft, silvery metal that does not rust. Mixed with copper it makes bronze, which gave its name to the Bronze Age.
What is tin used for?
Coating steel food cans, solder for electronics, bronze and pewter.
Where the name comes from
From an Old English word. The symbol Sn comes from stannum, its Latin name.
Key facts
- Symbol
- Sn
- Atomic number
- 50
- Atomic mass
- 118.71 u
- Family
- Post-transition metal
- Period
- 5
- Group
- 14
- Block
- p
- State at room temperature
- Solid
- Melting point
- 231.9 °C (505.08 K, 449 °F)
- Boiling point
- 2,602 °C (2,875 K, 4,715 °F)
- Density
- 7.29 g/cm³
- Electrons per shell
- 2, 8, 18, 18, 4
- Electron configuration
- [Kr]5s2 4d10 5p2
- Common oxidation states
- +4, +2
- Electronegativity (Pauling)
- 1.96
- First ionisation energy
- 7.344 eV
- Electron affinity
- 1.2 eV
- Atomic radius (van der Waals)
- 217 pm
- Discovered
- Known since ancient times
Place in the periodic table
Tin is element number 50. It sits in period 5 (row 5) of the periodic table, in group 14 (column 14), and belongs to the p-block. Just before it comes indium (49), and just after it comes antimony (51). In the same column, germanium is above it and lead is below it. Elements in one column tend to behave alike.
Family: Post-transition metals.
Physical properties
At room temperature tin is a solid. It melts at 231.9 °C and boils at 2,602 °C, so it stays liquid over a range of 2,370 degrees. Its density is 7.29 grams per cubic centimetre, so a one-litre block would weigh about 7.29 kilograms. By density it ranks 45th among the 96 elements with a measured value.
Inside the atom
An atom of tin has 50 protons in its nucleus and, when neutral, 50 electrons around it. The electrons are arranged in 5 shells: 2, 8, 18, 18, 4. The outermost shell holds 4 electrons. Written in full, the electron configuration is [Kr]5s2 4d10 5p2.
Its electronegativity on the Pauling scale is 1.96. This number shows how strongly an atom pulls shared electrons towards itself: fluorine, the strongest, is 3.98. Removing one electron from an atom takes 7.344 electronvolts (about 709 kilojoules per mole). One mole of tin weighs 118.71 grams, so a single gram contains about 5.07 × 1021 atoms.
The ring picture is a simple model that only counts the electrons in each shell. Real atoms do not look like this.
Next steps
- Work out the weight of a compound that contains tin with the molar mass calculator.
- Compare it with every other element in the sortable list.
- Test yourself with the symbol quiz.
Figures on this page are from PubChem (U.S. National Library of Medicine), as downloaded on 11 November 2026. See About and data sources.