The history of the periodic table reflects over a century of growth in the understanding

of chemical properties, and culminates with the publication of the first actual periodic
table by Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869. While Mendeleev built upon earlier discoveries
by such scientists as Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier, the Russian scientist is generally
given sole credit for development of the actual periodic table itself.

The table itself is a visual representation of the periodic law which states that certain
properties of elements repeat periodically when arranged by atomic number. The table
arranges elements into vertical columns (Groups) and horizontal rows (Periods) to
display these commonalities.

Contents

1 Elemental idea from ancient times

2 Age of Enlightenment
2.1 Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier
2.2 Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner
3 Classifying Elements
3.1 Alexandre-Emile Béguyer de Chancourtois
3.2 John Newlands
4 Dmitri Mendeleev
4.1 Lothar Meyer
5 Refinements to the periodic table
5.1 Henry Moseley
5.2 Glenn T. Seaborg
6 Main discovery periods
7 The periodic table as a cultural icon
8 See also
9 References
10 External links

Elemental ideas from ancient times

People have known about some chemical elements such as gold, silver and copper
from antiquity, as these can all be discovered in nature in native form and are
relatively simple to mine with primitive tools.[2] However, the notion that there were
a limited number of elements from which everything was composed originated with
the Greek philosopher Aristotle. About 330 B.C Aristotle proposed that everything is
made up of a mixture of one or more of four "roots" (originally put forth by the
Sicilian philosopher Empedocles), but later renamed elements by Plato. The four
elements were earth, water, air and fire. While the concept of an element was thus
introduced, Aristotle's and Plato's ideas did nothing to advance the understanding of
the nature of matter.

Age of Enlightenment
Hennig Brand was the first person recorded to have discovered a new element. Brand
was a bankrupt German merchant who was trying to discover the Philosopher's Stone
— a mythical object that was supposed to turn inexpensive base metals into gold. He
experimented with distilling human urine until in 1649[3] he finally obtained a
glowing white substance which he named phosphorus. He kept his discovery secret,
until 1680 when Robert Boyle rediscovered it and it became public. This and related
discoveries raised the question of what it means for a substance to be an "element".

In 1661 Boyle defined an element as a substance that cannot be broken down into a
simpler substance by a chemical reaction. This simple definition actually served for
nearly 300 years (until the development of the notion of subatomic particles), and
even today is taught in introductory chemistry classes.

Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier

Antoine Laurent de Lavoisier

Lavoisier's Traité Élémentaire de Chimie (Elementary Treatise of Chemistry, 1789,
translated into English by Robert Kerr) is considered to be the first modern chemical
textbook. It contained a list of elements, or substances that could not be broken down
further, which included oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, phosphorus, mercury, zinc, and
sulphur. It also forms the basis for the modern list of elements. His list, however, also
included light and caloric, which he believed to be material substances. While many
leading chemists of the time refused to believe Lavoisier's new revelations, the
Elementary Treatise was written well enough to convince the younger generation.
However, as Lavoisier's descriptions only classified elements as metals or non-metals,
it fell short of a complete analysis.

Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner

In 1817, Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner began to formulate one of the earliest attempts
to classify the elements. He found that some elements formed groups of three with
related properties. He termed these groups "triads". Some triads classified by
Döbereiner are:

Chlorine, bromine, and iodine

Calcium, strontium, and barium
Sulphur, selenium, and tellurium
Lithium, sodium, and potassium
In all of the triads, the atomic weight of the second element was almost exactly the
average of the atomic weights of the first and third element. [4]

Classifying Elements
By 1869[3], a total of 63[3] elements had been discovered. As the number of known
elements grew, scientists began to recognize patterns in the way chemicals reacted
and began to devise ways to classify the elements.

Alexandre-Emile Béguyer de Chancourtois

Alexandre-Emile Béguyer de Chancourtois, a French geologist, was the first person to
notice the periodicity of the elements — similar elements seem to occur at regular
intervals when they are ordered by their atomic weights. He devised an early form of
periodic table, which he called the telluric helix. With the elements arranged in a
spiral on a cylinder by order of increasing atomic weight, de Chancourtois saw that
elements with similar properties lined up vertically. His chart included some ions and
compounds in addition to elements. His paper was published in 1862, but used
geological rather than chemical terms and did not include a diagram; as a result, it
received little attention until the work of Dmitri Mendeleev. [5]

John Newlands
John Newlands was an English chemist who in 1865 classified [6] the 56 elements
that had been discovered at the time into 11 groups which were based on similar
physical properties.

J. A. R. Newlands' law of octaves

Newlands noted that many pairs of similar elements existed which differed by some
multiple of eight in atomic weight. However, his law of octaves, likening this
periodicity of eights to the musical scale, was ridiculed by his contemporaries. It was
not until the following century, with Gilbert N. Lewis' valence bond theory (1916)
and Irving Langmuir's octet theory of chemical bonding [7] [8] (1919) that the
importance of the periodicity of eight would be accepted.

Dmitri Mendeleev

Mendeleev's 1869 periodic table

Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev

Dmitri Mendeleev, a Siberian-born Russian chemist, was the first scientist to make a
periodic table much like the one we use today. Mendeleev arranged the elements in a
table ordered by atomic weight, corresponding to relative molar mass as defined
today. It is sometimes said that he played "chemical solitaire" on long train rides
using cards with various facts of known elements. [9] On March 6, 1869, a formal
presentation was made to the Russian Chemical Society, entitled The Dependence
between the Properties of the Atomic Weights of the Elements. His table was
published in an obscure Russian journal but quickly republished in a German journal,
Zeitschrift für Chemie (Eng., "Chemistry Magazine"), in 1869. It stated:

The elements, if arranged according to their atomic weights, exhibit an apparent

periodicity of properties.
Elements which are similar as regards to their chemical properties have atomic
weights which are either of nearly the same value (e.g., Pt, Ir, Os) or which increase
regularly (e.g., K, Rb, Cs).
The arrangement of the elements, or of groups of elements in the order of their atomic
weights, corresponds to their so-called valencies, as well as, to some extent, to their
distinctive chemical properties; as is apparent among other series in that of Li, Be Ba,
C, N, O, and Sn.
The elements which are the most widely diffused have small atomic weights.
The magnitude of the atomic weight determines the character of the element, just as
the magnitude of the molecule determines the character of a compound body.
We must expect the discovery of many yet unknown elements–for example, elements
analogous to aluminium and silicon–whose atomic weight would be between 65 and
75.
The atomic weight of an element may sometimes be amended by knowledge of those
of its contiguous elements. Thus the atomic weight of tellurium must lie between 123
and 126, and cannot be 128. (This was based on the position of tellurium between
antimony and iodine whose atomic weight is 127. However Moseley later explained
the position of these elements without revising the atomic weight values — see
below.)
Certain characteristic properties of elements can be foretold from their atomic
weights.

This version of Mendeleev's periodic table from 1891. It is lacking the noble gases
Scientific benefits of Mendeleev's table

Mendeleev predicted the discovery of other elements and left space for these new
elements, namely eka-silicon (germanium), eka-aluminium (gallium), and eka-boron
(scandium). Thus, there was no disturbance in the periodic table.
He pointed out that some of the then current atomic weights were incorrect.
He provided for variance from atomic weight order.
Shortcomings of Mendeleev's table

His table did not include any of the noble gases, which were discovered later. These
were added by Sir William Ramsay as Group 0, without any disturbance to the basic
concept of the periodic table.
There was no place for the isotopes of the various elements, which were discovered
later.
Lothar Meyer
Unknown to Mendeleev, Lothar Meyer was also working on a periodic table.
Although his work was published in 1864, and was done independently of Mendeleev,
few historians regard him as an equal co-creator of the periodic table. For one thing,
Meyer's table only included 28 elements. Furthermore, Meyer classified elements not
by atomic weight, but by valence alone. Finally, Meyer never came to the idea of
predicting new elements and correcting atomic weights. Only a few months after
Mendeleev published his periodic table of all known elements (and predicted several
new elements to complete the table, plus some corrected atomic weights), Meyer
published a virtually identical table. While a few people consider Meyer and
Mendeleev the co-creators of the periodic table, most agree that, by itself,
Mendeleev's accurate prediction of the qualities of the undiscovered elements lands
him the larger share of credit. In any case, at the time Mendeleev's predictions greatly
impressed his contemporaries and were eventually found to be correct. An English
chemist, William Odling, also drew up a table that is remarkably similar to that of
Mendeleev, in 1864.

Refinements to the periodic table

Henry Moseley
In 1914 Henry Moseley found a relationship between an element's X-ray wavelength
and its atomic number (Z), and therefore resequenced the table by nuclear charge
rather than atomic weight. Before this discovery, atomic numbers were just sequential
numbers based on an element's atomic weight. Moseley's discovery showed that
atomic numbers had an experimentally measurable basis.

Thus Moseley placed argon (Z=18) before potassium (Z=19) based on their X-ray
wavelengths, despite the fact that argon has a greater atomic weight (39.9) than
potassium (39.1). The new order agrees with the chemical properties of these
elements, since argon is a noble gas and potassium an alkali metal. Similarly, Moseley
placed cobalt before nickel, and was able to explain that tellurium occurs before
iodine without revising the experimental atomic weight of tellurium (127.6) as
proposed by Mendeleev.

Moseley's research also showed that there were gaps in his table at atomic numbers 43
and 61 which are now known to be Technetium and Promethium, respectively, both
radioactive and not naturally occurring. Following in the footsteps of Dmitri
Mendeleev, Henry Moseley also predicted new elements.

Glenn T. Seaborg
During his Manhattan Project research in 1943 Glenn T. Seaborg experienced
unexpected difficulty isolating Americium (95) and Curium (96). He began
wondering if these elements more properly belonged to a different series which would
explain why the expected chemical properties of the new elements were different. In
1945, he went against the advice of colleagues and proposed a significant change to
Mendeleev's table: the actinide series.

Seaborg's actinide concept of heavy element electronic structure, predicting that the
actinides form a transition series analogous to the rare earth series of lanthanide
elements, is now well accepted in the scientific community and included in all
standard configurations of the periodic table. The actinide series are the second row of
the f-block (5f series) and comprise the elements from Actinium to Lawrencium.
Seaborg's subsequent elaborations of the actinide concept theorized a series of super
heavy elements in a Tran actinide series comprising elements 104 through 121 and a
super actinide series inclusive of elements 122 through 153.

Main discovery periods

The history of the periodic table is also a history of the discovery of the chemical
elements. IUPAC [10] suggest five "main discovery periods":

Before 1800 (36 elements): discoveries during and before the Enlightenment.
1800-1849 (+22 elements): impulse from scientific (empirical processes
systematization and modern atomic theory) and industrial revolutions.
1850-1899 (+23 elements): the age of classifying elements received an impulse from
the spectrum analysis. Boisbaudran, Bunsen, Crookes, Kirchhoff, and others "hunting
emission line signatures".
1900-1949 (+13 elements): impulse from the old quantum theory, the consolidated
periodic table, and quantum mechanics.
1950-1999 (+15 elements): "atomic bomb" and Particle physics issues, for atomic
numbers 97 and above.
The periodic table as a cultural icon
A periodic table mounted on a classroom wall
Throughout the 20th century, the periodic table grew in ubiquity. [Citation needed] Its
presence on a classroom wall tells the movie-viewing audience that they are viewing a
science classroom. [Citation needed] It is often provided to students taking
standardized tests as a necessary tool to complete chemical problems. [Citation
needed]

In 1998, a 35-by-65 foot periodic table was constructed at the Science Museum of
Virginia and is a Guinness World Record. [11]

A necessary prerequisite to the construction of the periodic table was the discovery of
the individual elements. Although elements such as gold, silver, tin, copper, lead and
mercury have been known since antiquity, the first scientific discovery of an element
occurred in 1649 when Hennig Brand discovered phosphorous. During the next 200
years, a vast body of knowledge concerning the properties of elements and their
compounds was acquired by chemists (view a 1790 article on the elements). By 1869,
a total of 63 elements had been discovered. As the number of known elements grew,
scientists began to recognize patterns in properties and began to develop classification
schemes.

Law of Triads
In 1817 Johann Dobereiner noticed that the atomic weight of strontium fell midway
between the weights of calcium and barium, elements possessing similar chemical
properties. In 1829, after discovering the halogen triad composed of chlorine,
bromine, and iodine and the alkali metal triad of lithium, sodium and potassium he
proposed that nature contained triads of elements the middle element had properties
that were an average of the other two members when ordered by the atomic weight
(the Law of Triads).

This new idea of triads became a popular area of study. Between 1829 and 1858 a
number of scientists (Jean Baptiste Dumas, Leopold Gmelin, Ernst Lenssen, Max von
Pettenkofer, and J.P. Cooke) found that these types of chemical relationships extended
beyond the triad. During this time fluorine was added to the halogen group; oxygen,
sulphur, selenium and tellurium were grouped into a family while nitrogen,
phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, and bismuth were classified as another. Unfortunately,
research in this area was hampered by the fact that accurate values of were not always
available.
First Attempts at Designing a Periodic Table
If a periodic table is regarded as an ordering of the chemical elements demonstrating
the periodicity of chemical and physical properties, credit for the first periodic table
(published in 1862) probably should be given to a French geologist, A.E.Beguyer de
Chancourtois. De Chancourtois transcribed a list of the elements positioned on a
cylinder in terms of increasing atomic weight. When the cylinder was constructed so
that 16 mass units could be written on the cylinder per turn, closely related elements
were lined up vertically. This led de Chancourtois to propose that "the properties of
the elements are the properties of numbers." De Chancourtois was first to recognize
that element properties occur every seven elements, and using this chart, he was able
to predict the stoichiometry of several metallic oxides. Unfortunately, his chart
included some ions and compounds in addition to elements.
Law of Octaves
John Newlands, an English chemist, wrote a paper in 1863 which classified the 56
established elements into 11 groups based on similar physical properties, noting that
many pairs of similar elements existed which differed by some multiple of eight in
atomic weight. In 1864 Newlands published his version of the periodic table and
proposed the Law of Octaves (by analogy with the seven intervals of the musical
scale). This law stated that any given element will exhibit analogous behaviour to the
eighth element following it in the table.
Who Is The Father of the Periodic Table?
There has been some disagreement about who deserves credit for being the "father" of
the periodic table, the German Lothar Meyer (pictured here) or the Russian Dmitri
Mendeleev. Both chemists produced remarkably similar results at the same time
working independently of one another. Meyer's 1864 textbook included a rather
abbreviated version of a periodic table used to classify the elements. This consisted of
about half of the known elements listed in order of their atomic weight and
demonstrated periodic valence charges as a function of atomic weight. In 1868, Meyer
constructed an extended table which he gave to a colleague for evaluation.
Unfortunately for Meyer, Mendeleev's table became available to the scientific
community via publication (1869) before Meyer's appeared (1870).

Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev (1834-1907), the youngest of 17 children was born in

the Siberian town of Tobol'sk where his father was a teacher of Russian literature and
philosophy (portrait by Ilyia Repin). Mendeleev was not considered an outstanding
student in his early education partly due to his dislike of the classical languages that
were an important educational requirement at the time even though he showed
prowess in mathematics and science. After his father's death, he and his mother
moved to St. Petersburg to pursue a university education. After being denied
admission to both the University of Moscow and St. Petersburg University because of
his provincial background and unexceptional academic background, he finally earned
a place at the Main Pedagogical Institute (St. Petersburg Institute). Upon graduation,
Mendeleev took a position teaching science in a gymnasium. After a time as a teacher,
he was admitted to graduate work at St. Petersburg University where he earned a
Master's degree in 1856. Mendeleev so impressed his instructors that he was retained
to lecture in chemistry. After spending 1859 and 1860 in Germany furthering his
chemical studies, he secured a position as professor of chemistry at St. Petersburg
University, a position he retained until 1890. While writing a textbook on systematic
inorganic chemistry, Principles of Chemistry, which appeared in thirteen editions the
last being in 1947, Mendeleev, organized his material in terms of the families of the
known elements which displayed similar properties. The first part of the text was
devoted to the well known chemistry of the halogens. Next, he chose to cover the
chemistry of the metallic elements in order of combining power -- alkali metals first
(combining power of one), alkaline earths (two), etc. However, it was difficult to
classify metals such as copper and mercury which had multiple combining powers,
sometimes one and other times two. While trying to sort out this dilemma, Mendeleev
noticed patterns in the properties and atomic weights of halogens, alkali metals and
alkaline metals. He observed similarities between the series Cl-K-Ca, Br-/Rb-Sr and
I-Cs-Ba. In an effort to extend this pattern to other elements, he created a card for
each of the 63 known elements. Each card contained the element's symbol, atomic
weight and its characteristic chemical and physical properties. When Mendeleev
arranged the cards on a table in order of ascending atomic weight grouping elements
of similar properties together in a manner not unlike the card arrangement in his
favourite solitaire card game, patience, the periodic table was formed. From this table,
Mendeleev developed his statement of the periodic law and published his work On the
Relationship of the Properties of the Elements to their Atomic Weights in 1869. The
advantage of Mendeleev's table over previous attempts was that it exhibited
similarities not only in small units such as the triads, but showed similarities in an
entire network of vertical, horizontal, and diagonal relationships. In 1906, Mendeleev
came within one vote of being awarded the Nobel Prize for his work.

At the time that Mendeleev developed his periodic table since the experimentally
determined atomic masses were not always accurate, he reordered elements despite
their accepted masses. For example, he changed the weight of beryllium from 14 to 9.
This placed beryllium into Group 2 above magnesium whose properties it more
closely resembled than where it had been located above nitrogen. In all Mendeleev
found that 17 elements had to be moved to new positions from those indicated strictly
by atomic weight for their properties to correlate with other elements. These changes
indicated that there were errors in the accepted atomic weights of some elements
(atomic weights were calculated from combining weights, the weight of an element
that combines with a given weight of a standard.) However, even after corrections
were made by redetermining atomic weights, some elements still needed to be placed
out of order of their atomic weights. From the gaps present in his table, Mendeleev
predicted the existence and properties of unknown elements which he called eka-
aluminum, eka-boron, and eka-silicon. The elements gallium, scandium and
germanium were found later to fit his predictions quite well. In addition to the fact
that Mendeleev's table was published before Meyers', his work was more extensive
predicting new or missing elements. In all Mendeleev predicted the existence of 10
new elements, of which seven were eventually discovered -- the other three, atomic
weights 45, 146 and 175 do not exist. He also was incorrect in suggesting that the
element pairs of argon-potassium, cobalt-nickel and tellurium-iodine should be
interchanged in position due to inaccurate atomic weights. Although these elements
did need to be interchanged, it was because of a flaw in the reasoning that periodicity
is a function of atomic weight.

Discovery of the Noble Gases

In 1895 Lord Rayleigh reported the discovery of a new gaseous element named argon
which proved to be chemically inert. This element did not fit any of the known
periodic groups. In 1898, William Ramsey suggested that argon be placed into the
periodic table between chlorine and potassium in a family with helium; despite the
fact that argon's atomic weight was greater than that of potassium. This group was
termed the "zero" group due to the zero valency of the elements. Ramsey accurately
predicted the future discovery and properties neon.

Atomic Structure and the Periodic Table

Although Mendeleev's table demonstrated the periodic nature of the elements, it
remained for the discoveries of scientists of the 20th Century to explain why the
properties of the elements recur periodically.

In 1911 Ernest Rutherford published studies of the scattering of alpha particles by

heavy atom nuclei which led to the determination of nuclear charge. He demonstrated
that the nuclear charge on a nucleus was proportional to the atomic weight of the
element. Also in 1911, A. van den Broek in a series of two papers proposed that the
atomic weight of an element was approximately equal to the charge on an atom. This
charge, later termed the atomic number, could be used to number the elements within
the periodic table. In 1913, Henry Moseley (see a picture) published the results of his
measurements of the wavelengths of the x-ray spectral lines of a number of elements
which showed that the ordering of the wavelengths of the x-ray emissions of the
elements coincided with the ordering of the elements by atomic number. With the
discovery of isotopes of the elements, it became apparent that atomic weight was not
the significant player in the periodic law as Mendeleev, Meyers and others had
proposed, but rather, the properties of the elements varied periodically with atomic
number.

The question of why the periodic law exists was answered as scientists developed an
understanding of the electronic structure of the elements beginning with Niels Bohr's
studies of the organization of electrons into shells through G.N. Lewis' (see a picture)
discoveries of bonding electron pairs.

The Modern Periodic Table

The last major changes to the periodic table resulted from Glenn Seaborg's work in
the middle of the 20th Century. Starting with his discovery of plutonium in 1940, he
discovered all the transuranic elements from 94 to 102. He reconfigured the periodic
table by placing the actinide series below the lanthanide series. In 1951, Seaborg was
awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work. Element 106 has been named
seaborgium (Sg) in his honour.
The periodic table of the chemical elements (also periodic table of the elements or just
the periodic table) is a tabular display of the chemical elements. Although precursors
to this table exist, its invention is generally credited to Russian chemist Dmitri
Mendeleev in 1869, who intended the table to illustrate recurring ("periodic") trends
in the properties of the elements. The layout of the table has been refined and
extended over time, as new elements have been discovered, and new theoretical
models have been developed to explain chemical behaviour.
The periodic table is now ubiquitous within the academic discipline of chemistry,
providing a useful framework to classify, systematize, and compare all of the many
different forms of chemical behaviours. The table has found many applications in
chemistry, physics, biology, and engineering, especially chemical engineering. The
current standard table contains 118 elements to date. (Elements 1–118).

Contents [show]
1 Structure

Period
This common arrangement of the periodic table separates the lanthanoids and
actinoids (the f-block) from other elements. The wide periodic table incorporates the
f-block. The extended periodic table adds the 8th and 9th periods, incorporating the f-
block and adding the theoretical g-block.

Element categories in the periodic table

Metals Metalloids Non-metals Unknown

Chemical
Properties
Alkali metals Alkaline earth metals Inner transition elements Transition elements
other metals other non-metals Halogens Noble gases
Lanthanides Actinides

Atomic number colours show state at standard temperature and pressure (0 °C and 1
atm) Solids Liquids Gases Unknown
Borders show natural occurrence Primordial from decay Synthetic (Undiscovered)

Other alternative periodic tables exist.

Some versions of the table show a dark stair-step line along the metalloids. Metals are
to the left of the line and non-metals to the right. [2]

The layout of the periodic table demonstrates recurring ("periodic") chemical

properties. Elements are listed in order of increasing atomic number (i.e., the number
of protons in the atomic nucleus). Rows are arranged so that elements with similar
properties fall into the same columns (groups or families). According to quantum
mechanical theories of electron configuration within atoms, each row (period) in the
table corresponded to the filling of a quantum shell of electrons. There are
progressively longer periods further down the table, grouping the elements into s-, p-,
d- and f-blocks to reflect 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 2010, the table contains 118 chemical elements whose discoveries have been
confirmed. Ninety-four are found naturally on Earth, and the rest are synthetic
elements that have been produced artificially in particle accelerators. Elements 43
(technetium), 61 (promethium) and all elements greater than 83 (bismuth), beginning
with 84 (polonium) have no stable isotopes. The atomic mass of each of these
element's isotope having the longest half-life is typically reported on periodic tables
with parentheses.[3] Isotopes of elements 43, 61, 93 (neptunium) and 94 (plutonium),
first discovered synthetically, have since been discovered in trace amounts on Earth as
products of natural radioactive decay processes.
The primary determinant of an element's chemical properties is its electron
configuration, particularly the valence shell electrons. For instance, any atoms with
four valence electrons occupying p orbitals will exhibit some similarity. The type of
orbital in which the atom's outermost electrons reside determines the "block" to which
it belongs. The number of valence shell electrons determines the family, or group, to
which the element belongs.

Sub shell S G F D P
Period
1 1s
2 2s 2p
3 3s 3p
4 4s 3d 4p
5 5s 4d 5p
6 6s 4f 5d 6p
7 7s 5f 6d 7p
8 8s 5g 6f 7d 8p
The total number of electron shells an atom has determines the period to which it
belongs. Each shell is divided into different sub shells, which as atomic number
increases are filled in roughly this order (the Aufbau principle) (see table). Hence the
structure of the table. Since the outermost electrons determine chemical properties,
those with the same number of valence electrons are grouped together.

Progressing through a group from lightest element to heaviest element, the outer-shell
electrons (those most readily accessible for participation in chemical reactions) are all
in the same type of orbital, with a similar shape, but with increasingly higher energy
and average distance from the nucleus. For instance, the outer-shell (or "valence")
electrons of the first group, headed by hydrogen, all have one electron in an s orbital.
In hydrogen, that s orbital is in the lowest possible energy state of any atom, the first-
shell orbital (and represented by hydrogen's position in the first period of the table). In
francium, the heaviest element of the group, the outer-shell electron is in the seventh-
shell orbital, significantly further out on average from the nucleus than those electrons
filling all the shells below it in energy. As another example, both carbon and lead
have four electrons in their outer shell orbitals.

Note that as atomic number (i.e., charge on the atomic nucleus) increases, this leads to
greater spin-orbit coupling between the nucleus and the electrons, reducing the
validity of the quantum mechanical orbital approximation model, which considers
each atomic orbital as a separate entity.

The elements ununtrium, ununquadium, ununpentium, etc. are elements that have
been discovered, but so far have not received a trivial name yet. There is a system for
naming them temporarily.

Classification
Groups
Main article: Group (periodic table)
A group or family is a vertical column in the periodic table. Groups are considered the
most important method of classifying the elements. In some groups, the elements have
very similar properties and exhibit a clear trend in properties down the group. These
groups tend to be given trivial (unsystematic) names, e.g., the alkali metals, alkaline
earth metals, halogens, pnictogens, chalcogens, and noble gases. Some other groups in
the periodic table display fewer similarities and/or vertical trends (for example Group
14), and these have no trivial names and are referred to simply by their group
numbers.

Periods
Main article: Period (periodic table)
A period is a horizontal row in the periodic table. Although groups are the most
common way of classifying elements, there are some regions of the periodic table
where the horizontal trends and similarities in properties are more significant than
vertical group trends. This can be true in the d-block (or "transition metals"), and
especially for the f-block, where the lanthanides and actinides form two substantial
horizontal series of elements.

Blocks

This diagram shows the periodic table blocks. Main article: Periodic table block
Because of the importance of the outermost shell, the different regions of the periodic
table are sometimes referred to as periodic table blocks, named according to the sub
shell in which the "last" electron resides. The s-block comprises the first two groups
(alkali metals and alkaline earth metals) as well as hydrogen and helium. The p-block
comprises the last six groups (groups 13 through 18) and contains, among others, all
of the semimetals. The d-block comprises groups 3 through 12 and contains all of the
transition metals. The f-block, usually offset below the rest of the periodic table,
comprises the rare earth metals.

Other
The chemical elements are also grouped together in other ways. Some of these
groupings are often illustrated on the periodic table, such as transition metals, poor
metals, and metalloids. Other informal groupings exist, such as the platinum group
and the noble metals.

Periodicity of chemical properties

The main value of the periodic table is the ability to predict the chemical properties of
an element based on its location on the table. It should be noted that the properties
vary differently when moving vertically along the columns of the table than when
moving horizontally along the rows.

Trends of groups
Modern quantum mechanical theories of atomic structure explain group trends by
proposing that elements within the same group have the same electron configurations
in their valence shell, which is the most important factor in accounting for their
similar properties. Elements in the same group also show patterns in their atomic
radius, ionization energy, and electronegativity. From top to bottom in a group, the
atomic radii of the elements increase. Since there are more filled energy levels,
valence electrons are found farther from the nucleus. From the top, each successive
element has lower ionization energy because it is easier to remove an electron since
the atoms are less tightly bound. Similarly, a group will also see a top to bottom
decrease in electronegativity due to an increasing distance between valence electrons
and the nucleus.

Trends of periods

Periodic trend for ionization energy. Each period begins at a minimum for the alkali
metals, and ends at a maximum for the noble gases. Elements in the same period show
trends in atomic radius, ionization energy, electron affinity, and electro negativity.
Moving left to right across a period, atomic radius usually decreases. This occurs
because each successive element has an added proton and electron which causes the
electron to be drawn closer to the nucleus. This decrease in atomic radius also causes
the ionization energy to increase when moving from left to right across a period. The
more tightly bound an element is, the more energy is required to remove an electron.
Similarly, electro negativity will increase in the same manner as ionization energy
because of the amount of pull that is exerted on the electrons by the nucleus. Electron
affinity also shows a slight trend across a period. Metals (left side of a period)
generally have a lower electron affinity than non-metals (right side of a period) with
the exception of the noble gases.

History
Main article: History of the periodic table
In 1789, Antoine Lavoisier published a list of 33 chemical elements. Although
Lavoisier grouped the elements into gases, metals, non-metals, and earths, chemists
spent the following century searching for a more precise classification scheme. In
1829, Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner observed that many of the elements could be
grouped into triads (groups of three) based on their chemical properties. Lithium,
sodium, and potassium, for example, were grouped together as being soft, reactive
metals. Döbereiner also observed that, when arranged by atomic weight, the second
member of each triad was roughly the average of the first and the third. [4] This
became known as the Law of triads. [Citation needed] German chemist Leopold
Gmelin worked with this system, and by 1843 he had identified ten triads, three
groups of four, and one group of five. Jean Baptiste Dumas published work in 1857
describing relationships between various groups of metals. Although various chemists
were able to identify relationships between small groups of elements, they had yet to
build one scheme that encompassed them all. [4]

German chemist August Kekulé had observed in 1858 that carbon has a tendency to
bond with other elements in a ratio of one to four. Methane, for example, has one
carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms. This concept eventually became known as
valency. In 1864, fellow German chemist Julius Lothar Meyer published a table of the
49 known elements arranged by valency. The table revealed that elements with
similar properties often shared the same valency.

English chemist John Newlands published a series of papers in 1864 and 1865 that
described his attempt at classifying the elements: When listed in order of increasing
atomic weight, similar physical and chemical properties recurred at intervals of eight,
which he likened to the octaves of music.[6][7] This law of octaves, however, was
ridiculed by his contemporaries.[8]
Portrait of Dmitri Mendeleev Russian chemistry professor Dmitri Ivanovich
Mendeleev and Julius Lothar Meyer independently published their periodic tables in
1869 and 1870, respectively. They both constructed their tables in a similar manner:
by listing the elements in a row or column in order of atomic weight and starting a
new row or column when the characteristics of the elements began to repeat.[9] The
success of Mendeleev's table came from two decisions he made: The first was to leave
gaps in the table when it seemed that the corresponding element had not yet been
discovered.[10] Mendeleev was not the first chemist to do so, but he went a step
further by using the trends in his periodic table to predict the properties of those
missing elements, such as gallium and germanium.[11] The second decision was to
occasionally ignore the order suggested by the atomic weights and switch adjacent
elements, such as cobalt and nickel, to better classify them into chemical families.
With the development of theories of atomic structure, it became apparent that
Mendeleev had inadvertently listed the elements in order of increasing atomic
number. [12]

With the development of modern quantum mechanical theories of electron

configurations within atoms, it became apparent that each row (or 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. However, because larger atoms have more
electron sub-shells, modern tables have progressively longer periods further down the
table. [13]

In the years that followed after Mendeleev published his periodic table, the gaps he
left were filled as chemists discovered more chemical elements. The last naturally
occurring element to be discovered was francium (referred to by Mendeleev as eka-
caesium) in 1939. [14] The periodic table has also grown with the addition of
synthetic and transuranic elements. The first transuranic element to be discovered was
neptunium, which was formed by bombarding uranium with neutrons in a cyclotron in
1939. [15]