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Dobereiner’s Triads

 Newlands Law of Octaves

 Mendeleev’s Periodic Table

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 Need For Classification

• Today 118 elements are known to the scientific world.

• . However, around year 1800 only about 30 elements were known.
• More number of elements were discovered in the course of time.
• More and more information about the properties of these elements was
gathered.
• in the initial classification elements were classified into the groups of
metals and nonmetals. Later on another class of elements called
metalloids was noticed.
• As the knowledge about elements and their properties went on
increasing different scientists started trying out different methods of
classification
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 Dobereiner’s Triads

In the year 1817 a German scientist

Dobereiner suggested that ,properties
of elements are related to their
atomic masses.

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 Newlands’ Law of Octaves
 Newlands arranged the elements known at that time in an
increasing order of their atomic masses.

 He found that every eighth element had properties

similar to those of the first.
 Newlands compared this similarity with the octaves in music.

 He called the similarity observed in the eighth and the first

element as the Law of octaves

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 Limitations of Newlands’ Law of Octaves
 This law was found to be applicable only up to calcium.

 Newlands placed two elements each in some boxes to accommodate all the known
elements in the table.

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 For example, Newlands placed the metals Co and Ni under the note ‘Do’ along with
halogens, while Fe, having similarity with Co and Ni, away from them along with the
nonmetals O and S under the note ‘Ti
 Newlands’ octaves did not have provision to accommodate the newly discovered
elements.

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 Mendeleev’s Periodic Table

Mendeleev considered atomic mass of elements as standard.

 Arranged 63 elements known at that time in an increasing order of their atomic
masses.
Then he transformed this into the periodic table of elements in accordance with the
physical and chemical properties of these elements.
These were the molecular formulae of hydrides and oxides of the elements, melting
points, boiling points and densities of the elements and their hydrides and oxides.
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 Mendeleev found that the elements with similar physical and chemical
properties repeat after a definite interval.

On the basis of this finding Mendeleev stated the following periodic law:

Properties of elements are periodic function of their atomic masses.

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  The vertical
columns in the
Mendeleev’s
periodic table
are called
groups.
 The horizontal
rows are called
periods.

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 Merits of Mendeleev’s periodic table

1. Atomic masses of some elements were revised so as to

give them proper place in the periodic table in
accordance with their properties. For example, the
previously determined atomic mass of beryllium, 14.09,
was changed to the correct value 9.4, and beryllium
was placed before boron.

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2.Mendeleev kept vacant places in the periodic table
for elements not discovered till then. Three of these
unknown elements were given the names eka-boron,
eka-aluminium and eka-silicon from the known
neighbors and their atomic masses were indicated as
44, 68 and 72, respectively

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Not only this but their properties were also predicted.
Later on these elements were discovered and named
as scandium (Sc), gallium (Ga) and germanium (Ge)
respectively.
 The properties of these elements matched well with
those predicted by Mendeleev.

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 There was no place reserved for noble gases in
3.

Mendeleev’s original periodic table. However, when

noble gases such as helium, neon and argon were
discovered towards the end of nineteenth century.
 Mendeleev created the ‘ zero’ group without
disturbing the original periodic table in which the noble
gases were fitted very well.

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 Demerits of Mendeleev’s periodic table

1. The whole number atomic mass of the elements

cobalt (Co) and nickel (Ni) is the same.
 Therefore there was an ambiguity(confusion)
regarding their sequence in Mendeleev’s periodic
table.

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2. Isotopes were discovered long time after Mendeleev
put forth the periodic table.
 As isotopes have the same chemical properties but
different atomic masses, a challenge was posed in
placing them in Mendeleev’s periodic table.

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3. When elements are arranged in an increasing order of
atomic masses, the rise in atomic mass does not appear
to be uniform.
 It was not possible, therefore, to predict how many
elements could be discovered between two heavy
elements.

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4. Position of hydrogen :

Hydrogen shows similarity with halogens (group VII).

For example, the molecular formula of hydrogen is H2
while the molecular formulae of fluorine and chlorine
are F2 and Cl2 , respectively.

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 In the same way, there is a similarity in the chemical
properties of hydrogen and alkali metals (groupI).
 There is a similarity in the molecular formulae of the
compounds of hydrogen alkali metals (Na, K, etc)
formed with chlorine and oxygen.

 On considering the above properties it can not be decided

whether the correct position of hydrogen is in the group of
alkali metals (group I) or in the group of halogens (group VII).
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 Modern Periodic Law
 The scientific world did not know anything about the
interior of the atom when Mendeleev put forth the
periodic table.
 After the discovery of electron, scientists started
exploring the relation between the electron number of
an atom and the atomic number.

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 In 1913 A.D. the English scientist Henry Moseley
demonstrated, with the help of the experiments done
using X-ray tube, that the atomic number (Z) of an
element corresponds to the number of the protons in
the nucleus of the atom of that element.

 This revealed that ‘atomic number’ is a more

fundamental property of an element than its atomic
mass.

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Accordingly the statement of the modern periodic law was
stated as follows:

Properties of elements are a periodic function of their

atomic numbers

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 Modern periodic table : long form of the periodic table
 The classification of elements resulting from an
arrangement of the elements in an increasing order of
their atomic numbers is the modern periodic table.

 The modern periodic table is also called the long form

of the periodic table

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 In the modern periodic table the elements are
arranged in accordance with their atomic number.

 As a result, most of the drawbacks of Mendeleev’s

periodic table appear to be removed.

 However, the ambiguity about the position of hydrogen

is not removed even in the modern periodic table.

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 We have seen in the previous standard that the
electronic configuration of an atom, the way in which
the electron are distributed in the shells around the
nucleus, is determined by the total number of
electrons in it;
 the total number of electrons in an atom is same as the
atomic number.
 The relation between the atomic number of an
element and its electronic configuration is clearly seen
in the modern periodic table
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 Structure of the Modern Periodic Table
 The modern periodic table contains seven horizontal
rows called the periods 1 to 7.
 Eighteen vertical columns in this table are the groups 1
to 18.

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 The arrangement of the periods and groups results into formation of
boxes.

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 Atomic numbers are serially indicated in the upper part of
these boxes
 Each box corresponds to the place for one element.

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 Apart from these seven rows, two rows are shown
separately at the bottom of the periodic table. These
are called lanthanide series and actinide series,
respectively.

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 Valency Video

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