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How are the elements in the periodic table arranged?

October 20th, 2008

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How are the elements in the periodic table arranged?

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Earlier attempts to list the elements to show the relationships between them had usually involved putting them in order of atomic mass. Mendeleev’s key insight in devising the periodic table was to lay out the elements to illustrate recurring (”periodic”) chemical properties (even if this meant some of them were not in mass order), and to leave gaps for “missing” elements. Mendeleev used his table to predict the properties of these “missing elements”, and many of them were indeed discovered and fit the predictions well.

With the development of theories of atomic structure (for instance by Henry Moseley) it became apparent that Mendeleev had listed the elements in order of increasing atomic number (i.e. the number of protons in the atomic nucleus). This sequence is nearly identical to that resulting from ascending atomic mass.

In order to illustrate recurring properties, Mendeleev began new rows in his table so that elements with similar properties fell into the same vertical columns (”groups”).

With the development of modern quantum mechanical theories of electron configuration within atoms, it became apparent that each horizontal row (”period”) in the table corresponded to the filling of a quantum shell of electrons. In Mendeleev’s original table, each period was the same length. Modern tables have progressively longer periods further down the table, and group the elements into s-, p-, d- and f-blocks to reflect our understanding of their electron configuration.

In printed tables, each element is usually listed with its element symbol and atomic number; many versions of the table also list the element’s atomic mass and other information, such as its abbreviated electron configuration, electronegativity and most common valence numbers. As of 2005, the table contains 116 chemical elements whose discoveries have been confirmed. Ninety are found naturally on Earth, and the rest are synthetic elements that have been produced artificially in particle accelerators. Elements 43 (technetium) and 61 (promethium), although of lower atomic number than the naturally occurring element 92, uranium, are synthetic; elements 93 (neptunium) and 94 (plutonium) are listed with the synthetic elements, but have been found in trace amounts on earth.

Entry Filed under: Atomic Structure