Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
There are currently 118 known chemical elements with a wide range of physical and chemical properties. Amongst this diversity, scientists have found it useful to apply names for various sets of elements that have similar properties, to varying degrees. Many of these sets are formally recognized by the standards body IUPAC. [1]
Elements with similar chemical properties generally fall into the same group in the periodic table, although in the f-block, and to some respect in the d-block, the elements in the same period tend to have similar properties, as well.
Arranged this way, elements in the same group (column) have similar chemical and physical properties, reflecting the periodic law. For example, the halogens lie in the second-to-last group ( group 17 ) and share similar properties, such as high reactivity and the tendency to gain one electron to arrive at a noble-gas electronic configuration.
This is a list of chemical elements and their atomic properties, ordered by atomic number (Z). Since valence electrons are not clearly defined for the d-block and f-block elements, there not being a clear point at which further ionisation becomes unprofitable, a purely formal definition as number of electrons in the outermost shell has been used.
The elements have very similar properties: they are all shiny, silvery-white, somewhat reactive metals at standard temperature and pressure. [ 2 ] Together with helium , these elements have in common an outer s orbital which is full [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] —that is, this orbital contains its full complement of two electrons, which the alkaline ...
On the periodic table, homologous elements share many electrochemical properties and appear in the same group (column) of the table. For example, all noble gases are colorless, monatomic gases with very low reactivity. These similarities are due to similar structure in their outer shells of valence electrons. [10]
A chemical element, often simply called an element, is a type of atom which has a specific number of protons in its atomic nucleus (i.e., a specific atomic number, or Z). [ 1 ] The definitive visualisation of all 118 elements is the periodic table of the elements , whose history along the principles of the periodic law was one of the founding ...
Thus, on both descending a period and crossing a group by one element, the changes "cancel" each other out, and elements with similar properties which have similar chemistry are often found – the atomic radius, electronegativity, properties of compounds (and so forth) of the diagonal members are similar.