The study of elements:

The Periodic Table

Periodic Table

It is an arrangement of elements in which

elements are separated into groups based on
a set of repeating properties.
It allows us to compare the properties of
different elements easily.
Periodic Table
Horizontal rows are
called periods.
There are 7 periods
in the table.
Vertical columns
are called groups or
families. The
elements of one
group all have
similar chemical
and physical
properties.
History of the Periodic Table

Some elements have been known for

thousands of years, like gold (Au) and silver
(Ag).
By 1700 only 13 elements had been
discovered.
With time, chemists began sorting elements
by their properties.
History of the Periodic Table
1829, Germany- Dobereiner sorted elements into triads:
For example Br, I and Cl
1869, Russia- Mendeleev published the first table,
arranging the elements in order of increasing atomic
mass.
1870, Germany- Lothar Meyer also published a table
working independently.
1913, England- Henry Moseley showed that
atomic number rather than atomic weights are the
determining factor of chemical properties.
After this, the periodic table was arranged in order of
increasing Atomic Number (Z).
The Periodic Law

When elements are arranged in order of

increasing atomic number, there is a
periodic repetition of their physical and
chemical properties.
Periodic comes fromm ancient Greek,
peri= around and hodos=path; meaning
that properties repeat from left to right
across each period.
Classes of elements
Classes of elements
There are 3 classes of
elements:
Metals,
Non Metals and
Metalloids
Of the 106 known
elements, only 17 show
primarily non-metallic
characteristics, 7 others
are metalloids, and 82 are
classed as metals.
Metals
Those elements which, when in solution in a pure state,
carry a positive charge and seek the negative pole, in an
electric cell.
Properties of metals that are familiar to everyone
include:
They are good conductors of heat and electricity
They are usually opaque to light
They have metallic luster
Have possitive charge
Non metals
Non-metals are basically defined as elements that are not metals.
Their physical properties generally include:
They are poor conductors.
They are brittle, not ductile in their solid state.
They show no metallic luster.
They may be transparent or translucent.
They have low density.
They form molecules which consists of atoms covalently bonded; the nobel
gases are monoatomic.
Their chemical properties are generally:
They have high electron affinities (except noble gases)
They are good oxidizing agents (except noble gases)
They have hydroxides which are acidic (except noble gases)
They are electronegative.
Metalloids
There are elements that are definitely on the border between metal and non-
metal. These elements will show hybrid behavior.
Many of them have been called semiconductors. This group of elements include
boron, silicon, germanium, arsenic, antimony, tellurium, and astatine.
Their physical properties generally include:
They are good conductors of heat and electricity.
They are malleable and ductile in their solid state.
They show metallic luster.
They are opaque.
They have high density.
They are solids
They have crystal structure in which each atom is surrounded by eight to twelve near
neighbors
Their chemical properties generally are:
They have low ionization potentials; they readily lose electrons.
They are good reducing agents.
They are electropositive.
Families of elements
Families of elements

Also called groups of elements.

The groups or families of elements are:
Representative elements:
Alkali metals, Alkaline-earth metals, Other metals
Hallogens
Noble Gases, etc
Transition metals
Rare earth elements (Inner-transition metals)
Alkaline metal family
Alkali metal is a term that refers to six elements: lithium, sodium,
potassium, rubidium, cesium, and francium. These elements make up
group I of the periodic table of elements.
The name comes from the Arab word, alkali that means ashes,
since the first two elements that were known of this family, sodium
and potassium, came from the ashes when wood is burned.
General Characteristics of the family:
They react vigorously with the radical hydroxide to form bases.
All the bases that they form are very strong.
They are the most positively charged elements.
All are soft, ductile and malleable metals.
Ussually white color.
They oxidize quickly, when they combinine with the oxygen of the air.
They all form singly-charged positive ions, and are extremely reactive
They react violently with water, forming hydroxides and releasing hydrogen gas and
heat.
Alkaline-earth metals
Called this way by the alchemists, since they extracted
them from the earth where they were always in form of
oxides (combination of these elements with the oxygen).

General Characteristics of the family:

They combine with certain violence with the hydroxide radical
forming very strong bases.
They are the second more active metals of the periodic table.
They tend to cede the two electrons in the external level.
They are not found free in nature, only as oxides.
They are quite soft, but in smaller degree than the alkaline.
Boron and Aluminum Family

The typical elements of this family are the

boron and the aluminum, since they are the
only elements of the family that cede the 3
electrons of the external level.
General Characteristics of the Family:
Their densities, atomic volumes and atomic radios
increase regularly with their atomic numbers .
They become more metallic as the atomic number
increases.
Carbon Family

The first two members of this family, carbon (C) and silicon
(Si), are fundamentally nonmetals, those that continue are
more metallic as the atomic number increases, as well as
their density increases.
General Characteristics of the family:
They have the tendency to form covalent bondings , that is to
share electrons, not to cede nor gain electrons, being this tendency
more powerful in the carbon, smaller in the silicon, and practically
null in the germanium (Ge), tin (Sn) and lead (Pb)
When they form bondings in a three-dimensional net that
difficults the liberation of the atoms then, having this way high
fusion and boiling points. This ability diminishes as the atomic
number increases.
 Phosphorous and Nitrogen Family

It is also called family of nitrogen because

this element is the first one, and family of
phosphorus, because in fact, this is the most
active element of this family, which burns
without difficulty and removes intense heat.
General Characteristics of the family:
The nitrogen, the phosphorus and the arsenic are
nonmetals.
The antimony has more characteristics of metal
than nonmetal.
The bismuth is a metal.
The nonmetal qualities diminish as the atomic
number increases
Oxygen Family

General Characteristics of the family:

They are electronegative, tendency that
diminishes as the atomic number increases.
Only the sulfur has a nonmetal character, the rest
are metal.
In contact with water, they form gas, and the
gases of these elements are poisonous, of nasty
scent and acid.
Halogen Family

The word halogen means salt-producer .

General Characteristics of the family:

They have an electronegative character, being the fluorine
the most electronegative of all, this tendency diminishes
as the atomic number increases
They tend to form monovalent anions (valence -1).
The stability diminishes as the atomic number increases
(becoming more reactive).
Their densities, fusion points, boiling points and the radius
of the atom, increase as the atomic number increases
Noble Gases Family

As a general characteristic, the elements of this family

are inert; they don't combine with other elements. It
has been possible to form compounds with only the
xenon, the radon and the kripton, and only with the
fluorine since it is the most active nonmetal, but only
under special conditions. They are six in total: Helium,
Neon, Argon, Kripton, Xenon and Radon.
Transition metals

This group of metals are

distinguished from other metals not
by their physical properties, but by
their electronic structure.
The transition metals include the
elements of the groups IIIB through
IB in each of the long periods of the
periodic table.
The transition metals are noted for
their variability in oxidation state.
Elements of Rare Earth

These elements are in the periodic table

distributed in two series: series of the lanthanide
elements and series of the actinides elements, for
their resemblances with these elements.
In their majority they are radioactive elements
of very short or very long average life
Difficult to study their characteristics. Those
with a number higher than 92 are artificial, or
transuranic made by man, using the
transmutation process.