Mendeleev

Mendeleev even recognized that there were holes in his periodic table where unknown elements should be found. Based on the periodic properties, Mendeleev predicted the properties of these elements. Later, when gallium and germanium were discovered, scientists found that these elements had properties that were very close to those predicted by Mendeleev. 

---

L. Scandia, Scandinavia) On the basis of the Periodic System, Mendeleev predicted the existence of ekaboron, which would have an atomic weight between 40 of calcium and 48 of htanium. 

The element was discovered by Nilson in 1878 in the minerals euxenite and gadolinite, which had not yet been found anywhere except in Scandinavia. By processing 10 kg of euxenite and other residues of rare-earth minerals, Nilson was able to prepare about 2g of highly pure scandium oxide. Later scientists pointed out that Nilson s scandium was idenhcal with Mendeleev s ekaboron. 

L. Gallia, France also from Latin, gallus, a translation of Lecoq, a cock) Predicted and described by Mendeleev as ekaaluminum, and discovered spectroscopically by Lecoq de Boisbaudran in 1875, who in the same year obtained the free metal by electrolysis of a solution of the hydroxide in KOH. 

Latin Germania, Germany) Mendeleev predicted the existence of Germanium in 1871 as ekasilicon, and the element was discovered by Winkler in 1886. 

Dmitri Mendeleev) Mendelevium, the ninth transuranium element of the actinide series discovered, was first identified by Ghiorso, Harvey, Choppin, Thompson, and Seaborg in early in 1955 during the bombardment of the isotope 253Es with helium ions in the Berkeley 60-inch cyclotron. The isotope produced was 256Md, which has a half-life of 76 min. This first identification was notable in that 256Md was synthesized on a one-atom-at-a-time basis. 

Mendeleev noted patterns in the combining ratios of elements... 

In 1869, fhe Russian chemisf Mendeleev nofed fhaf fhe repeating patterns of... 

For nearly half a century, Mendeleev s periodic table remained an empirical compilation of the relationship of the elements. Only after the first atomic model was developed by the physicists of the early twentieth century, which took form in Bohr s model, was it possible to reconcile the involved general concepts with the specificity of the chemical elements. Bohr indeed expanded Rutherford s model of the atom, which tried to connect the chemical specificity of the elements grouped in Mendeleev s table with the behavior of electrons spinning around the nucleus. Bohr hit upon the idea that Mendeleev s periodicity could... 

Chemists were quick to appreciate Bohr s model because it provided an extremely clear and simple interpretation of chemistry. It explained the reason behind Mendeleev s table, that the position of each element in the table is nothing other than the number of electrons in the atom of the element, which, of course, represents an equal number of periodic changes in the nucleus. Each subsequent atom has one more electron, and the periodic valence changes reflect the successive filling of the orbital. Bohr s model also provided a simple basis for the electronic theory of valence. 

Gallium [7440-55-3] atomic number 31, was discovered through a study of its spectral properties in 1875 by P. E. Lecoq de Boisbaudran and named from Gallia in honor of its discoverer s homeland. The first element to be discovered after the pubHcation of Mendeleev s Periodic Table, its discovery constituted a confirmation of the Table which was reinforced shordy after by the discoveries of scandium and germanium. 

This system of nomenclature has withstood the impact of later experimental discoveries and theoretical developments that have since the time of Guyton de Morveau and Lavoisier greatiy altered the character of chemical thought, eg, atomic theory (Dalton, 1802), the hydrogen theory of acids (Davy, 1809), the duahstic theory (Berzehus, 1811), polybasic acids (Liebig, 1834), Periodic Table (Mendeleev and Meyer, 1869), electrolytic dissociation theory (Arrhenius, 1887), and electronic theory and modem knowledge of molecular stmcture. 

The concept of chemical periodicity is central to the study of inorganic chemistry. No other generalization rivals the periodic table of the elements in its ability to systematize and rationalize known chemical facts or to predict new ones and suggest fruitful areas for further study. Chemical periodicity and the periodic table now find their natural interpretation in the detailed electronic structure of the atom indeed, they played a major role at the turn of the century in elucidating the mysterious phenomena of radioactivity and the quantum effects which led ultimately to Bohr s theory of the hydrogen atom. Because of this central position it is perhaps not surprising that innumerable articles and books have been written on the subject since the seminal papers by Mendeleev in 1869, and some 700 forms of the periodic table (classified into 146 different types or subtypes) have been proposed. A brief historical survey of these developments is summarized in the Panel opposite. 

F. P. Venable, The Developmeni of ihe Periodic Law, Chemical Publishing Co., Easton. Pa., 1896. This i.s Ihe first general review of periodic tables and has an almost complete colleclion of those published to that lime. J. W. Van Spronsen. The Periodic Syeiem of ihe Chemical Elements, Elsevier. Amsterdam, 1969, 368 pp. An excellent modem account of the historical developments leading up to Mendeleev s table. 

The ubiquitous electron was discoveied by J. J. Thompson in 1897 some 25 y after the original work on chemical periodicity by D. I. Mendeleev and Lothar Meyer however, a further 20 y were to pass before G. N. Lewis and then I. Langmuir connected the electron with valency and chemical bonding. Refinements continued via wave mechanics and molecular Orbital theory, and the symbiotic relation between experiment and theory still continues... 

D. 1. Mendeleev modified and Improved his tables and predicted the discovery of 10 elements (now known as Sc. Ga, Ge, Tc, Re, Po, Fr, Ra, Ac and Pa). He fully described with amazing prescience the properties of 4 of these (Sc, Ga, Ge, Po). Note, however, that it was not possible to predia the existence of tte noble gases or the number of lanthanide elemeiits. 

The periodicity in the oxidation state or valence shown by the elements was forcefully illustrated by Mendeleev in one of his early forms of the periodic system and this is shown in an extended form in Fig. 2.5 which incorporates more recent information. The predictive and interpolative powers of such a plot are obvious and have been a fruitful source of chemical experimentation for over a century. 

Figure 2.5 Formal oxidaiion slates of the elenients displayed in a format originally devised by Mendeleev in 1889. The more common oxidation slates (including zero) are shown in while. Nonintegral values, as in BsHv, CiH , HN.i, etc., are noi included.

Of the remaining 26 undiscovered elements between hydrogen and uranium, 11 were lanthanoids which Mendeleev s system was unable to characterize because of their great chemical similarity and the new numerological feature dictated by the filling of the 4f orbitals. Only cerium, terbium and erbium were established with certainty in 1871, and the others (except promethium, 1945) were separated and identified in the period 1879 -1907. The isolation of the (unpredicted) noble gases also occurred at this time (1894-8). 

Indeed, the influence of Mendeleev s fruitful generalization pervades the whole modem approach to the chemistry of the elements. 

Gallium was predicted as eka-aluminium by D. 1. Mendeleev in 1870 and was discovered by P. E. Lecoq de Boisbaudran in 1875 by means of the spectroscope de Boi.sbaudran was, in fact, guided at the time by an independent theory of his own and had been searching for the missing element for some years. The first indications came with the observation of two new violet lines in the spark spectrum of a sample deposited on zinc, and within a month he had isolated 1 g of the metal starting from several hundred kilograms of crude zinc blende ore. The... 

Germanium was predicted as the missing element of a triad between silicon and tin by J. A. R. Newlands in 1864, and in 1871 D. I. Mendeleev specified the properties that ekasilicon would have (p. 29). The new element was discovered by C. A. Winkler in 1886 during the analysis of a new and rare mineral argyrodite, AggGeSfi " he named it in honour of his country, Germany. By contrast, tin and lead are two of the oldest metals known... 

W, Pt, Au and the noble gases, though 0x0 compounds of all elements are known except for He, Ne, Ar and possibly Kr. This great range of compounds was one of the reasons why Mendeleev chose oxides to exemplify his periodic law (p. 20) and why oxygen was chosen as the standard element for the atomic weight scale in the early days when atomic weights were determined mainly by chemical stoichiometry (p. 16). 

---