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Controversy Continues on the Position of Elements in the Periodic Table


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1 Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru 560 012, India
 

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is all set to celebrate 2019 as the year of the Periodic Table of elements, the single most important organizational tool in chemistry. While the central role of the Table in chemistry is undisputed, the debate on placement of elements in its various blocks has not settled even after 150 years. Though there is general agreement about the four blocks of the Table, there are many points to debate. The first element itself had options. The logic of keeping hydrogen simultaneously above Li and F is easy to understand. So was the debate to keep He above Be, and, also above Ne. IUPAC adopted to keep H above Li and He above Ne. The philosophical implications of the evolutionary changes in the Periodic Table have been discussed in detail by many, Eric Scerri prime among them.
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  • https://iupac.org/united-nations-proclaims-international-year-periodic-table-chemical-elements/

  • Scerri, E., Selected Papers on the Periodic Table by Eric Scerri, Imperial College Press, London, UK, 2009.

  • Sato, T. K. et al., Nature, 2015, 520, 2019.

  • Jensen, W. B., Found. Chem., 2015, 17, 23–31, and references cited there.

  • Lavelle, L., J. Chem. Educ., 2008, 85, 1482–1483.

  • Scerri, E., Educ. Chem., 2015; https://eic.rsc.org/opinion/five-ideas-in-chemical-education-that-must-die-part-five/2010032.article

  • http://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/

  • Xu, W. H. and Pyykko, P., Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2016, 18, 17351.

  • https://iupac.org/what-we-do/periodic-table-of-elements/

  • https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/periodictable.html; However there are other products available from ACS with different placement of atoms.

  • Joshi, M., Chandrasekar, A. and Ghanty, T. K., Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2018, doi:10.1039/c8cp01056k. The introduction to this article gives a summary of the issues involved.

  • https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/new-rationale-for-15-element-wide-fblock/3009047.article (by Walshe, A., 2018, and comment by Lavalle, L.).


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  • Controversy Continues on the Position of Elements in the Periodic Table

Abstract Views: 511  |  PDF Views: 137

Authors

Eluvathingal D. Jemmis
Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru 560 012, India

Abstract


The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is all set to celebrate 2019 as the year of the Periodic Table of elements, the single most important organizational tool in chemistry. While the central role of the Table in chemistry is undisputed, the debate on placement of elements in its various blocks has not settled even after 150 years. Though there is general agreement about the four blocks of the Table, there are many points to debate. The first element itself had options. The logic of keeping hydrogen simultaneously above Li and F is easy to understand. So was the debate to keep He above Be, and, also above Ne. IUPAC adopted to keep H above Li and He above Ne. The philosophical implications of the evolutionary changes in the Periodic Table have been discussed in detail by many, Eric Scerri prime among them.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv114%2Fi12%2F2428-2429