PERIODIC CLASSIFICATION OF ELEMENTS

• In the beginning, scientists had classified elements into two broad categories as metals and non-metals.
• Some elements exhibited properties that could neither be classified as metals nornon-metals and hence were
called metalloids.
• Over the years, many chemists attempted to make a rational and systematic classification.
• It was based on the physical and chemical properties of each element. These results were then tabulated in
the form of a table.

Periodic table
- Table giving the arrangement of the known elements according to their properties so that similar elements fall
within the same vertical column and dissimilar elements are separated.

DOBEREINER’S TRIADS:

o In 1817, a German chemist named Johann Wolfgang Dobereiner arranged the elements with similar
properties into groups.
o He identified many such groups which had three elements in them. Hence, these groups were termed as
triads.
o In a triad, the elements were arranged in increasing order of their atomic masses. When the arithmetic mean
of the atomic mass of the first and the third element was taken, it came out to be approximately the same as
that of the second or the middle element. This is a distinctive feature that can be used to identify if elements
form a triad.
o This classification was also not sufficient as not many triads could be identified

NEWLANDS’ LAW OF OCTAVES

o In 1866, an English scientist, John Newlands arranged many of the then known elements in the increasing
order of their atomic masses.
o He started with the element having the lowest atomic mass (hydrogen) and ended at 56th Element
Thorium
o He noticed that the eighth element was similar in properties to the first element.
o It was concluded that there exists some systematic relationship between the order of atomic masses and the
repetition of properties of elements. This relationship, when represented in a tabular form, presented a
periodic repetition of the properties of the elements. Hence, the term periodicity was introduced.
o This had a resemblance to the eight musical notes in both Western as well as Indian music.
o Properties of Li are similar to those of the 8th element, Na, and the properties of Be are identical to those
of Mg, and so on.

o Law of Octaves worked well with lighter elements up to Calcium because after Calcium, every eighth
element did not possess properties similar to that of the first.
 o Elements existed in nature and no more elements would be discovered in the future. But several new
elements were discovered later on, whose properties did not fit into the Law of Octaves. So, this was not
sufficient either.

MENDELEEV’S PERIODIC TABLE

 In 1869, a Russian chemist, Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev classified the then known 63 elements based on their
physical and chemical properties in the increasing order of the atomic masses in the form of a table.
 He had observed that properties of the elements recur cyclically when they were arranged in the order of their
increasing atomic masses. This observation led to the conclusion that the physical and chemical properties of
the elements are periodic functions of their atomic masses. This is known as the law of chemical periodicity.
 Periodic Table is the tabulation of all the known elements in a tablular format based on this law.
 It contains
o 8 vertical columns called ‘groups’ and
o 7 horizontal rows called ‘periods’.
 Each of the eight groups has two sub-groups A and B. Properties of elements within a sub-group are more similar
to each other than the characteristics of elements found in two different sub-groups

Important contributions of Mendeleev’s periodic table are

o Systematic Study of Elements
o Prediction of New Elements – Mendeleev had predicted new elements and had left three blanks for these
undiscovered elements. He was able to predict their properties more or less accurately. He named them eka-
boron, eka-aluminium and eka-silicon.
o Correction of Atomic Masses – Based on the elements’ positions in the periodic table, Mendeleev was able to
correct their atomic masses. Aomic mass of beryllium was corrected from 13.5 to 9.0.

Limitations of Mendeleev’s classification:

o Assigning a position to Hydrogen
o Hydrogen has a electronic configuration as that of alkali metals and combines with halogens,
oxygen, sulphur to form compounds, like HCL, H2O, H2S
o At the same time it exists as a diatomic molecule like halogens.
So, Mendeleev was not able to assign a proper position for hydrogen.
o Assigning position to isotopes
o Isotopes have similar properties but differ in their atomic masses.
o Mendeleev’s classification would place them in different groups due to their different atomic masses,
but isotopes were not placed so as their properties were similar.
o Anomalous pairing of some elements
o Mendeleev did not follow the increasing atomic masses but grouped some elements based on similar
properties.
o Argon with an atomic mass of 39.9 was placed before potassium with atomic mass of 39.1.
o Some elements with similar properties like copper (Cu) and mercury (Hg) were placed separately,
o Some dissimilar elements were placed in one group. Copper was placed in group I, the elements of
which had no similarities with copper.

MOSELY’S MODERN PERIODIC TABLE

 In the year 1913, an English physicist named Henry Mosely found that the atomic number of an element
was a more basic property to group them instead of their atomic masses
 Atomic Number was denoted by symbol ‘Z’
 Elements were now grouped based on the increasing atomic number. This came to be known as the Modern
Periodic Law
 Modern Periodic Law states that ‘properties of elements are a periodic function of their atomic number’
.
 New classification of elements based on this came into existence and was termed as ‘Modern Periodic
Table’ .
 With this system of grouping it was easy to predict the properties of the elements when they were arranged in
the order of increasing atomic numbers.
 It is to be noted that the periodicity of the elements is based on the electronic configuration or the
number of protons in the nucleus.
Features of the Modern Periodic Table:
 Table has 18 vertical columns that are known by the name of groups
 7 horizontal rows that are named as periods.

PERIODS

 There are 7 periods in this table.

 All the elements in a period of a periodic table have the same number of filled shells and same number of
valence shell.
o Example – Na, Mg, Al, Si, P, S, Cl
 In a period, Number of electrons present in the energy shells increase by 1 on moving from left to right within
a period. Example Na – 1, Mg – 2, Al – 3, and so on.
 Number of elements present in a period can be determined by the formula 2n 2, where n is the number of the
shells
o First period consists of two elements only namely, hydrogen and helium as they have only 1 valence
shell.
 Hydrogen (Z = 1 or shell as K = 1)
 Helium (Z = 2 or shell as K = 2)
o Second period has 8 elements with 2 shells
 it starts with lithium (Z = 3 or shells as K = 2, L = 1)
 ends with neon (Z = 10 or shells as K = 2, L = 8).
o Third period has 8 elements with 3 shells
 it starts with sodium (Z = 11 or shells as K = 2, L = 8, M = 1)
 ends with argon (Z = 18 or shells as K = 2, L = 8, M = 8).
o Fourth period has 18 elements with 4 shells
 starts with potassium (Z = 19)
 Ending with krypton (Z = 36).
o Fifth period having 18 elements with 5 shell
 Starts with rubidium (Z = 37)
 Ends with xenon (Z = 54).
o Sixth period with 32 elements has 6 shells
 it starts with caesium (Z = 55)
 ending with radon (Z = 86).
o Seventh and last period is incomplete with 19 elements
 Starts francium (Z = 87)
 Goes on till oganesson (Z = 118).

GROUPS:

 There are 18 groups in periodic table.

 All Elements of Same Group have Same number of electrons in the valence shell or outermost shell of the
atom.
 Valence shell decides Physical or Chemical properties of elements
o Elements of same group have same properties due to same number of valence electrons.
o Example – fluorine and chlorine have valence electrons as 7 and they belong to group 17.
1. Number of shells increases by one unit as the elements move down in the periodic table in a group.

Blocks:
 Periodic table is also divided into 4 blocks that is based on the subshell of the valence electrons. They are:
o s-Block elements:
 All the elements of group 1 and 2 are included in this block
 Their general electronic configuration is ns 1to2
 Example - Hydrogen (H), Sodium (Na), etc from group 1 and Magnesium (Mg), Calcium
(Ca), etc from group 2.
o p-Block elements:
 This includes the elements from group 13 to 18.
 They have an electronic configuration as ns2np1to6
o d-block elements:
 This includes group 3 to 12 elements.
 They have a general electronic configuration as (n – 1)d1-10ns1-2
o f-block elements
  This block has sets of elements, lanthanides and the actinides.
 They have the electronic configuration of (n – 2)f1-14 (n – 1)d 0-1 ns2
 Lanthanides starts from Lanthanum (La) – Lutetium (Lu)
 Actinides starts from Actinium (Ac) – Lawrencium (Lr).

Position of Elements in Periodic Table & Characteristics

 Position of various elements are decided on basis of their valence shells and number of electrons present in
their valence shells.
o Example
 Sodium (Z – 11). It has a configuration of (2,8,1
 It has 3 shells, so it is placed In period 3
 Since it has 1 valence electron in outermost shell, it is placed in group 1.

Types Of Elements
 Position of an element in Periodic table determines its chemical nature.
 Based on the position of the elements in the periodic table, they can be classified as follows:

 NOBLE GASES
 These are a group of elements placed in group 18,
 which are tasteless, odourless monoatomic gases that
 have very low chemical reactivity.
 There are 6 such gases, namely, Helium (He), Neon (Ne), Argon (Ar), Krypton (Kr), Xenon (Xe),
Radon (Rn).
 They are also referred to as inert gases and due to their inertness, they are suitable to be used
where reactions are not required.
 Example – He is used by deep-sea divers in the breathing gas to prevent toxicity of oxygen,
nitrogen and carbon dioxide.

 NORMAL ELEMENTS
 All the elements that are placed in groups 1 to 7 are included in this.

 ALKALI METALS
 Elements in group 1, namely Lithium (Li) – Francium (Fr), except Hydrogen (H) are termed as
alkali metals
 They are called Alkali Metals because they tend to form hydroxide with water which are strong
alkalis.
 Thus alkali metals are very reactive and react quickly with water or air.
 Example – Sodium (Na) reacts violently with oxygen in the air, so it stored in mineral oil.

 ALKALINE EARTH METALS

 It include Group 2 elements starting from Beryllium (Be) – Radium (Ra).
 They are less reactive than the alkali metals that are found as a compound.

 TRANSITION ELEMENTS
 Transition elements are also known as transition metals
 They have partially filled d or f shells.
 These include the elements from group 3 to 11.
 They are named transition metals because they exhibit a transition in their properties from the
left to the right, including increase in atomic size, ionization energy, electronegativity.

 INNER TRANSITION ELEMENTS

 Inner transition elements are the elements in which the last electron enters in the f-orbital.
 They generally belong to group 3 in the periodic table but are mentioned separately as the f block
elements.
 Inner transition elements are metallic elements with similar electron configurations to transition
metals.
 Inner transition elements are usually shown below other elements in the periodic table, but they
belong to periods 6 and 7.
 Inner transition elements are divided into two series: lanthanoids and actinoids.
 Lanthanoids series starts from Lanthanum (La) - Lutetium (Lu) in period 6 with 14 elements.
 Actinoids starts from period 7 contains 14 elements starting from Actinium (Ac) – Lawrencium (Lr).
  HALOGENS
 These include a group of elements in group 17
 They are generally non-metals that can exist in solid, liquid and gas form.
 They react with the metals to form salts.
 They are Fluorine (F), Chlorine (Cl), Bromine (Br), Iodine (I), Astatine (At) and Tennessine
(Ts).

Properties of the periodic table:

VALENCY

 Valency denotes number of electrons that are gained or lost by an atom in order to complete its outermost
shell to have a stable electronic configuration.
 This valency is the number of electrons present in the valence shell.
 It can be noted that the valency increases from left to right in a period, and then decreases.
 The valency in the group remains the same through the group, going downward.
o Example – Period 2 elements have atomic number from 3 to 10, so they have 2 shells with increasing
number of valence till C and then it decreases. But all the group 2 elements have 2 electrons in their
outermost shell, so their valency is 2.

ATOMIC SIZE

 Atomic size is determined by the atomic radius of the atom

 It can be termed as the distance from the centre of the nucleus of the atom to its outermost shell.
 Across Period
o Atomic size decreases from left to right across a period in the periodic table. This is because the
nuclear charge increases from left to right, pulling the outermost shell closer to the nucleus.
 Down Group
o Atomic size increases as you move down a group in the periodic table. Because new electron shells
are added, which increases the distance between the nucleus and the outermost electrons.

IONIZATION ENERGY

 Amount of energy required to remove electrons that are present in valence shell or outermost shell of the
atom
 Across the period,
o since atomic radius decreases, electrons in outermost shell are much closer to the nucleus and it
requires more energy to remove them. So, ionisation energy increases across a period.
 In the groups,
o since a shell is being added down the group, so the atomic radius increases which leads to the
electrons in the outermost shell being far from the nucleus and therefore it is easy to remove them.
o Hence in a group, the ionisation energy decreases going from top to bottom.

Electron affinity:

 Electron affinity is the energy change that occurs when an electron is added to a neutral atom in its ground
state.
 It is a measure of the tendency of an atom to attract an electron and form a negative ion.

● In a period,
 Electron affinity generally increases across a period from left to right.
o Atomic size decreases ,nucleus is closer to the outermost energy level, making it easier to
attract an electron
o Effective nuclear charge increases across a period, which means the nucleus has a stronger
pull on electrons
o Electronegativity also increases across a period, which means atoms become more
electronegative and have a greater tendency to attract electron
 In the group, as atomic size increases, nuclear charge decreases, so lesser number of electrons can
be added which leads to lesser energy generation. Hence electron affinity decreases from top to
bottom in a group.
METALLIC AND NON-METALLIC PROPERTIES

Metallic Character
 Metals are those elements that have a tendency to lose electrons and attain a positive charge.
 Metallic nature of elements means that they are electropositive and have low ionization energy.
 In Periods
o Metallic character decreases along a period.
 In Groups
o increases down a group as the atomic size increases and they have an increased tendency of losing
electrons

Non Metallic Character

 Non-metallic nature of elements indicate that they have an ability to gain electrons and attain a negative
charge.
 Non-metallic nature indicates that they are electronegative and have high ionization energies.
 Across Periods
o Non-metallic nature increases along a period.
 Down Group
o Non-metallic character decreases as you move down a group on the periodic table.
o Because nucleus’s hold on electrons weakens as the atomic size increases

● The metallic nature. Example –