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Periodic table

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The periodic table of the chemical elements is a tabular display of the known chemical elements. The elements are arranged by electron structure so that many chemical properties vary regularly across the table. Each element is listed by its atomic number and chemical symbol.

The standard table provides the necessary basics. There are also other methods for displaying the chemical elements for more details or different perspectives.

Contents

Groups

A group is a vertical column in the periodic table of the elements. There are 18 groups in the standard periodic table. Elements in a group have similar configurations of their valence shell electrons, which gives them similar properties.

Group numbers

There are three systems of group numbers; one using Arabic numerals and the other two using Roman numerals. The Roman numeral names are the original traditional names of the groups; the Arabic numeral names are a newer naming scheme recommended by International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). The IUPAC scheme was developed to replace both older Roman numeral systems as they confusingly used the same names to mean different things.

Standard periodic table

Group → 1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Period ↓
1 1
H

2
He
2 3
Li
4
Be

5
B
6
C
7
N
8
O
9
F
10
Ne
3 11
Na
12
Mg

13
Al
14
Si
15
P
16
S
17
Cl
18
Ar
4 19
K
20
Ca

21
Sc
22
Ti
23
V
24
Cr
25
Mn
26
Fe
27
Co
28
Ni
29
Cu
30
Zn
31
Ga
32
Ge
33
As
34
Se
35
Br
36
Kr
5 37
Rb
38
Sr

39
Y
40
Zr
41
Nb
42
Mo
43
Tc
44
Ru
45
Rh
46
Pd
47
Ag
48
Cd
49
In
50
Sn
51
Sb
52
Te
53
I
54
Xe
6 55
Cs
56
Ba
*
71
Lu
72
Hf
73
Ta
74
W
75
Re
76
Os
77
Ir
78
Pt
79
Au
80
Hg
81
Tl
82
Pb
83
Bi
84
Po
85
At
86
Rn
7 87
 Fr
88
Ra
**
103
Lr
104
Rf
105
Db
106
Sg
107
Bh
108
Hs
109
Mt
110
Ds
111
Uuu
112
Uub
113
Uut
114
Uuq
115
Uup
116
Uuh
117
Uus
118
Uuo

* Lanthanides 57
La
58
Ce
59
Pr
60
Nd
61
Pm
62
Sm
63
Eu
64
Gd
65
Tb
66
Dy
67
Ho
68
Er
69
Tm
70
Yb
** Actinides 89
Ac
90
Th
91
Pa
92
U
93
Np
94
Pu
95
Am
96
Cm
97
Bk
98
Cf
99
Es
100
Fm
101
Md
102
No


Chemical Series of the Periodic Table
Alkali metals Alkaline earths Lanthanides Actinides Transition metals
Poor metals Metalloids Nonmetals Halogens Noble gases

State at standard temperature and pressure

  • those in red are gases
  • those in green are liquids
  • those in black are solid

Natural occurrance

  • those with soild borders are older than the Earth (Primordial elements)
  • those with dashed borders naturally arise from decay of primordial isotopes
  • those with dotted borders do not occur naturally (Synthetic Elements)
  • those without borders have not been discovered yet

Other methods for displaying the chemical elements

And here is the periodic table for magnetic resonance.

Explanation of the structure of the periodic table

The number of electron shells an atom has determines what period it belongs to. Each shell is divided into different subshells, which as atomic number increases are filled in roughly this order:

 1s
 2s           2p
 3s           3p
 4s        3d 4p
 5s        4d 5p
 6s     4f 5d 6p
 7s     5f 6d 7p
 8s  5g 6f 7d 8p
 ...

Hence the structure of the table. Since the outermost electrons determine chemical properties, those tend to be similar within groups. Elements adjacent to one another within a group have similar physical properties, despite their significant differences in mass. Elements adjacent to one another within a period have similar mass but different properties.

For example, very near to nitrogen (N) in the second period of the chart are carbon (C) and oxygen (O). Despite their similarities in mass (they differ by only a few atomic mass units), they have extremely different properties, as can be seen by looking at their allotropes: diatomic oxygen is a gas that supports burning, diatomic nitrogen is a gas that does not support burning, and carbon is a solid which can be burnt (yes, diamonds can be burnt!).

In contrast, very near to chlorine (Cl) in the next-to-last group in the chart (the halogens) are fluorine (F) and bromine (Br). Despite their dramatic differences in mass within the group, their allotropes have very similar properties: They are all highly corrosive (meaning they combine readily with metals to form metal halide salts); chlorine and fluorine are gases, while bromine is a very low-boiling liquid; chlorine and bromine at least are highly colored.

History

Main article: History of the periodic table

The original table was created without a knowledge of the inner structure of atoms: if one orders the elements by atomic mass, and then plots certain other properties against atomic mass, one sees an undulation or periodicity to these properties as a function of atomic mass. The first to recognize these regularities was the German chemist Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner who, in 1829, noticed a number of triads of similar elements:

Some triads
Element Atomic mass Density
chlorine 35.5 0.00156 g/cm3
bromine 79.9 0.00312 g/cm3
iodine 126.9 0.00495 g/cm3
 
calcium 40.1 1.55 g/cm3
strontium 87.6 2.6 g/cm3
barium 137 3.5 g/cm3

This was followed by the English chemist John Alexander Reina Newlands, who in 1865 noticed that the elements of similar type recurred at intervals of eight, which he likened to the octaves of music, though his law of octaves was ridiculed by his contemporaries. Finally, in 1869, the German Lothar Meyer and the Russian chemist Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev almost simultaneously developed the first periodic table, arranging the elements by mass. However, Mendeleev plotted a few elements out of strict mass sequence in order to make a better match to the properties of their neighbours in the table, corrected mistakes in the values of several atomic masses, and predicted the existence and properties of a few new elements in the empty cells of his table. Mendeleev was later vindicated by the discovery of the electronic structure of the elements in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Further resources

  • Mazurs, E.G., "Graphical Representations of the Periodic System During One Hundred Years". University of Alabama Press, Alabama. 1974.
  • Bouma, J., "An Application-Oriented Periodic Table of the Elements". J. Chem. Ed., 66 741 (1989).

See also

External links


Periodic tables

Standard table | Vertical table | Antimatter table | Table with names | Names and atomic masses (large) | Names and atomic masses (small) | Inline F-block | Elements to 218 | Electron configurations | Metals and non metals | Table by blocks
Lists of Elements
Name | Atomic symbol | Atomic number | Boiling point | Melting point | Density | Atomic mass

Group | Period | Series | Block


Chemistry

Analytical chemistry | Organic chemistry | Inorganic chemistry | Physical chemistry | Polymer chemistry | Biochemistry | Materials science | Environmental chemistry | Pharmacy | Thermochemistry | Electrochemistry | Nuclear chemistry | Computational chemistry
Periodic table | List of compounds


Last updated: 11-10-2004 19:58:42