Periodic Table

INTRODUCTION

Periodic Table of Elements

The periodic table of elements groups elements in columns and rows by shared
chemical properties. Elements appear in sequence according to their atomic
number. Clicking on an element in the table provides basic information about the
element, including its name, history, electron configuration, and atomic weight.
Atomic weights in parentheses indicate the atomic weight of the most stable
isotope.
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Periodic Table, table of the chemical elements arranged to illustrate patterns of
recurring chemical and physical properties. Elements, such as oxygen, iron, and
gold, are the most basic chemical substances and cannot be broken down by
chemical reactions. All other substances are formed from combinations of
elements. The periodic table provides a means of arranging all the known elements
and even those yet to be discovered.

Although all elements differ from one another, some show similarities that allow
scientists to categorize them. Around 1870, Russian chemist Dmitry Mendeleyev
used these similarities to construct the original periodic table. Since that time,

newly discovered elements have been added and the tables layout has changed;
however, the modern periodic table conveys essentially the same information as
the one that Mendeleyev created. In the modern table, elements with similar
properties fall into columns called groups or families. Group 1 of the periodic table,
for example, contains a number of soft metals, all of which react vigorously with
water to form hydrogen gas.
II

ARRANGEMENT OF THE TABLE

Atomic Radius Variation in the Periodic Table

The size of the atoms of an element varies in a regular way across the periodic
table, increasing down the groups (columns), and decreasing along the periods
(rows) from left to right. The size of an atom is largely determined by its
electrons. The electrons are arranged in shells surrounding the nucleus of each
atom. The top elements of every group have only one or two electron shells. Atoms
of elements further down the table have more shells and are therefore larger in
size. Moving across a period from left to right, the outermost electron shell fills
up but no new shells are added. At the same time, the number of protons in the
nucleus of each atom increases. Protons attract electrons. The greater the number
of protons present, the stronger the attraction that holds the electrons closer to
the nucleus, and the smaller the size of the shells.
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The elements within the modern periodic table are arranged from left to right, top
to bottom, in order of increasing atomic number. An elements atomic number is the

number of protons in its nucleus. More than 90 elements have been found to occur
naturally on Earth. The periodic table also includes artificially created elements.
These additions have the highest atomic numbers on the table. They must be
prepared through experiments with nuclear reactions. The most recent element to
be synthesized has 116 protons in the nucleus of each of its atoms. The elements
most recently produced have not yet been officially named.
Whereas the ordering of the elements is completely determined by their atomic
numbers, the arrangement into vertical columns, called groups, is determined by a
number of factors. These factors include chemical properties, physical properties,
and the number of electrons thought to exist in the outer shells of the elements
atoms. (The electrons that surround the nucleus of an atom are arranged in
concentric shells.)
The placement of elements into groups within the periodic table is not completely
clear-cut. Some scientists disagree about minor differences in the placement of
elements such as hydrogen and helium. Helium, which does not react with other
elements, is usually placed in group 18, which houses the noble gases. This group
also includes neon, argon, and krypton, all of which are also very unreactive.
Scientists who group the elements based primarily on the number of outer-shell
electrons place helium with elements such as magnesium, calcium, and barium among
the alkaline earth metals of group 2. Elements in group 2 have two electrons in
their outermost shell.
The periodic table has been published in various shapes and sizes, but the most
commonly used modern form begins with a column of group 1 metals on the lefthand side, followed by a column of group 2 alkaline earth metals. These columns are
followed by a block of 40 elements divided into ten columns of four elements each.
The groups in this block, collectively called the transition metals, are numbered 3
through 12. Groups 13 through 18 make up the right-hand side of the table. A
diagonal dividing line separates the nonmetals in the upper-right portion of this
block, such as oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen, from the metals such as tin and lead in
the lower left portion.
There is an additional block of 28 elements, divided into two rows of 14 elements
each, that is usually placed beneath the main table. These are the rare earth
elements, whose properties are all remarkably similar. They are so similar to one
another that chemists have difficulty separating them when they occur together
as mixtures. This additional block really belongs between the first block, consisting

of groups 1 and 2, and the transition metal block. For convenience it is placed at
the bottom of the table rather than in its proper place. Otherwise the periodic
table would be very wide and would not lend itself to being represented on wall
charts.
Scientists refer to the horizontal rows in the periodic table as periods. Periods
vary in length. Moving through the table from top to bottom, the successive
periods contain 2, 8, 8, 18, 18, 32, and 32 elements. These numbers correspond to
the maximum number of electrons that can be accommodated in the largest
electron shell in an atom of any element belonging to that period.
III

USES OF THE PERIODIC TABLE

The periodic table is an important tool for scientists and students studying the
chemical elements. If a person knows the main properties of each of the groups in
the periodic table and how chemical properties vary within a group, he or she can
predict the properties of any particular element with a reasonable degree of
confidence. For example, if a student needs to know the properties of francium,
she can predict that it, like other elements of group 1, will be a soft metal and will
react even more vigorously with water than the elements above it. If another
student wants to predict what compounds tellurium will form in combination with
hydrogen, he can guess that the two elements will form H 2Te because the other
elements in telluriums group form similar hydrogen compounds: H 2O, H2S, and
H2Se.
IV

HISTORY

Dmitry Mendeleyev
While attempting to organize the elements according to their chemical properties
and atomic weight, Dmitry Mendeleyev developed the Periodic Table and
formulated the periodic law. Because his classification revealed recurring patterns

(periods) in the elements, Mendeleyev was able to leave spaces in his table for
elements that he correctly predicted would be discovered. His forward-thinking
attitude extended into his politics as well as his classroom and made him a popular
but controversial professor.
Culver Pictures
A number of chemists contributed to the development of the periodic table during
the 19th century; however, Mendeleyev is regarded as the primary discoverer. His
version of the table was the first to accommodate all the known elements and also
successfully predicted the existence of several elements that had not yet been
discovered. These undiscovered elements included gallium, scandium, and
germanium.
At first, the ordering of the elements was based on atomic weightthe weight of
a single atom of the element. This method of ordering broke down in a few cases,
such as tellurium and iodine. The atomic weight of tellurium is actually higher than
that of iodine, suggesting that tellurium belongs in group 17 while iodine belongs in
group 16. Judging by their chemical properties, however, tellurium belongs in group
16 and iodine in 17. This anomaly was resolved in 1914, when it was discovered that
atomic number provides a better basis than atomic weight for ordering the
elements. Tellurium has an atomic number of 52 and iodines is 53.
Elements with similar properties are placed in the same group of the periodic
table, but for many years it was a mystery why these elements behaved similarly.
At the beginning of the 20th century, when theories of physics changed rapidly, an
approximate explanation for the repeating patterns within the periodic table was
found. Scientists discovered that the elements within a single group of the
periodic table possess the same number of outer-shell electrons, particles that had
not even been discovered when scientists produced the first periodic tables.