Creator of the periodic system of chemical elements. History of creation and development
The discovery of the table of periodic chemical elements was one of the important milestones in the history of the development of chemistry as a science. The pioneer of the table was the Russian scientist Dmitry Mendeleev. An extraordinary scientist with the broadest scientific horizons managed to combine all ideas about the nature of chemical elements into a single coherent concept.
About the table opening history periodic elements, interesting facts associated with the discovery of new elements, and folk tales that surrounded Mendeleev and the table of chemical elements he created, M24.RU will tell in this article.
Table opening history
By the middle of the 19th century, 63 chemical elements had been discovered, and scientists around the world have repeatedly attempted to combine all the existing elements into a single concept. The elements were proposed to be placed in ascending order of atomic mass and divided into groups according to the similarity of chemical properties.
In 1863, the chemist and musician John Alexander Newland proposed his theory, who proposed a layout of chemical elements similar to that discovered by Mendeleev, but the work of the scientist was not taken seriously by the scientific community due to the fact that the author was carried away by the search for harmony and the connection of music with chemistry.
In 1869, Mendeleev published his scheme of the periodic table in the journal of the Russian Chemical Society and sent out a notice of the discovery to the leading scientists of the world. In the future, the chemist repeatedly refined and improved the scheme until it acquired its familiar form.
The essence of Mendeleev's discovery is that with the growth of the atomic mass Chemical properties elements change not monotonously, but periodically. After a certain number of elements with different properties, the properties begin to repeat. Thus, potassium is similar to sodium, fluorine is similar to chlorine, and gold is similar to silver and copper.
In 1871, Mendeleev finally united the ideas into the Periodic Law. Scientists predicted the discovery of several new chemical elements and described their chemical properties. Subsequently, the chemist's calculations were fully confirmed - gallium, scandium and germanium fully corresponded to the properties that Mendeleev attributed to them.
Tales about Mendeleev
Engraving depicting Mendeleev. Photo: ITAR-TASS
About famous scientist and his discoveries went a lot of tales. People at that time had little idea of chemistry and believed that doing chemistry was something like eating soup from babies and stealing on an industrial scale. Therefore, the activities of Mendeleev quickly acquired a mass of rumors and legends.
One of the legends says that Mendeleev discovered the table of chemical elements in his sleep. The case is not the only one, August Kekule spoke about his discovery in the same way, who dreamed of the formula benzene ring. However, Mendeleev only laughed at the critics. “I’ve been thinking about it for maybe twenty years, and you say: I sat and suddenly ... it’s ready!”, the scientist once said about his discovery.
Another story credits Mendeleev with the discovery of vodka. In 1865, the great scientist defended his dissertation on the topic "Discourse on the combination of alcohol with water", and this immediately gave rise to a new legend. The contemporaries of the chemist laughed, saying that the scientist "does well under the influence of alcohol combined with water," and the next generations already called Mendeleev the discoverer of vodka.
They also laughed at the way of life of the scientist, and especially at the fact that Mendeleev equipped his laboratory in the hollow of a huge oak.
Also, contemporaries teased Mendeleev's passion for suitcases. The scientist at the time of his involuntary inactivity in Simferopol was forced to pass the time weaving suitcases. In the future, he independently made cardboard containers for the needs of the laboratory. Despite the clearly "amateur" nature of this hobby, Mendeleev was often called a "suitcase master."
Discovery of radium
One of the most tragic and at the same time famous pages in the history of chemistry and the appearance of new elements in the periodic table is associated with the discovery of radium. A new chemical element was discovered by the spouses Marie and Pierre Curie, who discovered that the waste remaining after the separation of uranium from uranium ore are more radioactive than pure uranium.
Since no one knew what radioactivity was then, the rumor quickly attributed healing properties and the ability to cure almost all diseases known to science to the new element. Radium was included in food products, toothpaste, face creams. The rich wore watches whose dials were painted with paint containing radium. The radioactive element was recommended as a means to improve potency and relieve stress.
Such "production" lasted for twenty whole years - until the 30s of the twentieth century, when scientists discovered the true properties of radioactivity and found out how detrimental the effect of radiation on the human body.
Marie Curie died in 1934 from radiation sickness caused by long-term exposure to radium.
Nebulium and Coronium
The periodic table not only ordered the chemical elements into a single coherent system, but also made it possible to predict many discoveries of new elements. At the same time, some chemical "elements" were recognized as non-existent on the basis that they did not fit into the concept of the periodic law. The most famous story is the "discovery" of new elements of nebulium and coronium.
When studying the solar atmosphere, astronomers discovered spectral lines that they could not identify with any of the chemical elements known on earth. Scientists have suggested that these lines belong to a new element, which is called coronium (because the lines were discovered during the study of the "crown" of the Sun - the outer layer of the star's atmosphere).
A few years later, astronomers made another discovery by studying the spectra of gaseous nebulae. The discovered lines, which again could not be identified with anything terrestrial, were attributed to another chemical element - nebulium.
The discoveries have been criticized because periodic table Mendeleev no longer had room for elements with the properties of nebulium and coronium. After checking, it was found that nebulium is ordinary terrestrial oxygen, and coronium is highly ionized iron.
Note that today in the Moscow Central House of Scientists of the Russian Academy of Sciences solemnly opened by scientists from Dubna near Moscow.
The material was created on the basis of information from open sources. Prepared by Vasily Makagonov
The discovery of the table of periodic chemical elements was one of the important milestones in the history of the development of chemistry as a science. The pioneer of the table was the Russian scientist Dmitry Mendeleev. An extraordinary scientist with the broadest scientific horizons managed to combine all ideas about the nature of chemical elements into a single coherent concept.
About the history of the discovery of the table of periodic elements, interesting facts related to the discovery of new elements, and folk tales that surrounded Mendeleev and the table of chemical elements he created, M24.RU will tell in this article.
Table opening history
By the middle of the 19th century, 63 chemical elements had been discovered, and scientists around the world have repeatedly attempted to combine all the existing elements into a single concept. The elements were proposed to be placed in ascending order of atomic mass and divided into groups according to the similarity of chemical properties.
In 1863, the chemist and musician John Alexander Newland proposed his theory, who proposed a layout of chemical elements similar to that discovered by Mendeleev, but the work of the scientist was not taken seriously by the scientific community due to the fact that the author was carried away by the search for harmony and the connection of music with chemistry.
In 1869, Mendeleev published his scheme of the periodic table in the journal of the Russian Chemical Society and sent out a notice of the discovery to the leading scientists of the world. In the future, the chemist repeatedly refined and improved the scheme until it acquired its familiar form.
The essence of Mendeleev's discovery is that with an increase in the atomic mass, the chemical properties of elements do not change monotonously, but periodically. After a certain number of elements with different properties, the properties begin to repeat. Thus, potassium is similar to sodium, fluorine is similar to chlorine, and gold is similar to silver and copper.
In 1871, Mendeleev finally united the ideas into the Periodic Law. Scientists predicted the discovery of several new chemical elements and described their chemical properties. Subsequently, the chemist's calculations were fully confirmed - gallium, scandium and germanium fully corresponded to the properties that Mendeleev attributed to them.
Tales about Mendeleev
Engraving depicting Mendeleev. Photo: ITAR-TASS
There were many tales about the famous scientist and his discoveries. People at that time had little idea of chemistry and believed that doing chemistry was something like eating soup from babies and stealing on an industrial scale. Therefore, the activities of Mendeleev quickly acquired a mass of rumors and legends.
One of the legends says that Mendeleev discovered the table of chemical elements in his sleep. The case is not the only one, August Kekule, who dreamed of the formula of the benzene ring, spoke in the same way about his discovery. However, Mendeleev only laughed at the critics. “I’ve been thinking about it for maybe twenty years, and you say: I sat and suddenly ... it’s ready!”, the scientist once said about his discovery.
Another story credits Mendeleev with the discovery of vodka. In 1865, the great scientist defended his dissertation on the topic "Discourse on the combination of alcohol with water", and this immediately gave rise to a new legend. The contemporaries of the chemist laughed, saying that the scientist "does well under the influence of alcohol combined with water," and the next generations already called Mendeleev the discoverer of vodka.
They also laughed at the way of life of the scientist, and especially at the fact that Mendeleev equipped his laboratory in the hollow of a huge oak.
Also, contemporaries teased Mendeleev's passion for suitcases. The scientist at the time of his involuntary inactivity in Simferopol was forced to pass the time weaving suitcases. In the future, he independently made cardboard containers for the needs of the laboratory. Despite the clearly "amateur" nature of this hobby, Mendeleev was often called a "suitcase master."
Discovery of radium
One of the most tragic and at the same time famous pages in the history of chemistry and the appearance of new elements in the periodic table is associated with the discovery of radium. A new chemical element was discovered by the spouses Marie and Pierre Curie, who discovered that the waste remaining after the separation of uranium from uranium ore is more radioactive than pure uranium.
Since no one knew what radioactivity was then, the rumor quickly attributed healing properties and the ability to cure almost all diseases known to science to the new element. Radium was included in food products, toothpaste, face creams. The rich wore watches whose dials were painted with paint containing radium. The radioactive element was recommended as a means to improve potency and relieve stress.
Such "production" lasted for twenty whole years - until the 30s of the twentieth century, when scientists discovered the true properties of radioactivity and found out how detrimental the effect of radiation on the human body.
Marie Curie died in 1934 from radiation sickness caused by long-term exposure to radium.
Nebulium and Coronium
The periodic table not only ordered the chemical elements into a single coherent system, but also made it possible to predict many discoveries of new elements. At the same time, some chemical "elements" were recognized as non-existent on the basis that they did not fit into the concept of the periodic law. The most famous story is the "discovery" of new elements of nebulium and coronium.
When studying the solar atmosphere, astronomers discovered spectral lines that they could not identify with any of the chemical elements known on earth. Scientists have suggested that these lines belong to a new element, which is called coronium (because the lines were discovered during the study of the "crown" of the Sun - the outer layer of the star's atmosphere).
A few years later, astronomers made another discovery by studying the spectra of gaseous nebulae. The discovered lines, which again could not be identified with anything terrestrial, were attributed to another chemical element - nebulium.
The discoveries were criticized, since Mendeleev's periodic table no longer had room for elements with the properties of nebulium and coronium. After checking, it was found that nebulium is ordinary terrestrial oxygen, and coronium is highly ionized iron.
Note that today in the Moscow Central House of Scientists of the Russian Academy of Sciences solemnly opened by scientists from Dubna near Moscow.
The material was created on the basis of information from open sources. Prepared by Vasily Makagonov
The discovery of the table of periodic chemical elements was one of the important milestones in the history of the development of chemistry as a science. The pioneer of the table was the Russian scientist Dmitry Mendeleev. An extraordinary scientist with the broadest scientific horizons managed to combine all ideas about the nature of chemical elements into a single coherent concept.
About the history of the discovery of the table of periodic elements, interesting facts related to the discovery of new elements and folk tales that surrounded Mendeleev and the table of chemical elements he created, M24.RU will tell in this article.
Table opening history
By the middle of the 19th century, 63 chemical elements had been discovered, and scientists around the world have repeatedly attempted to combine all the existing elements into a single concept. The elements were proposed to be placed in ascending order of atomic mass and divided into groups according to the similarity of chemical properties.
In 1863, the chemist and musician John Alexander Newland proposed his theory, who proposed a layout of chemical elements similar to that discovered by Mendeleev, but the work of the scientist was not taken seriously by the scientific community due to the fact that the author was carried away by the search for harmony and the connection of music with chemistry.
In 1869, Mendeleev published his scheme of the periodic table in the journal of the Russian Chemical Society and sent out a notice of the discovery to the leading scientists of the world. In the future, the chemist repeatedly refined and improved the scheme until it acquired its familiar form.
The essence of Mendeleev's discovery is that with an increase in the atomic mass, the chemical properties of elements do not change monotonously, but periodically. After a certain number of elements with different properties, the properties begin to repeat. Thus, potassium is similar to sodium, fluorine is similar to chlorine, and gold is similar to silver and copper.
In 1871, Mendeleev finally united the ideas into the Periodic Law. Scientists predicted the discovery of several new chemical elements and described their chemical properties. Subsequently, the chemist's calculations were fully confirmed - gallium, scandium and germanium fully corresponded to the properties that Mendeleev attributed to them.
Tales about Mendeleev
There were many tales about the famous scientist and his discoveries. People at that time had little idea of chemistry and believed that doing chemistry was something like eating soup from babies and stealing on an industrial scale. Therefore, the activities of Mendeleev quickly acquired a mass of rumors and legends.
One of the legends says that Mendeleev discovered the table of chemical elements in his sleep. The case is not the only one, August Kekule, who dreamed of the formula of the benzene ring, spoke in the same way about his discovery. However, Mendeleev only laughed at the critics. “I’ve been thinking about it for maybe twenty years, and you say: I was sitting in suddenly ... ready!”, The scientist once said about his discovery.
Another story credits Mendeleev with the discovery of vodka. In 1865, the great scientist defended his dissertation on the topic “Discourse on the combination of alcohol with water” and this immediately gave rise to a new legend. The contemporaries of the chemist laughed, saying that the scientist “does well under the influence of alcohol combined with water”, and the next generations already called Mendeleev the discoverer of vodka.
They also laughed at the way of life of the scientist, and especially at the fact that Mendeleev equipped his laboratory in the hollow of a huge oak.
Also, contemporaries teased Mendeleev's passion for suitcases. The scientist, at the time of his involuntary inaction in Simferopol, was forced to pass the time weaving suitcases. In the future, he independently made cardboard containers for the needs of the laboratory. Despite the clearly "amateur" nature of this hobby, Mendeleev was often called a "suitcase master."
Discovery of radium
One of the most tragic and at the same time famous pages in the history of chemistry and the appearance of new elements in the periodic table is associated with the discovery of radium. A new chemical element was discovered by the spouses Marie and Pierre Curie, who discovered that the waste remaining after the separation of uranium from uranium ore is more radioactive than pure uranium.
Since no one knew what radioactivity was then, the rumor quickly attributed healing properties and the ability to cure almost all diseases known to science to the new element. Radium was included in food products, toothpaste, face creams. The rich wore watches whose dials were painted with paint containing radium. The radioactive element was recommended as a means to improve potency and relieve stress.
Such "production" lasted for twenty whole years - until the 30s of the twentieth century, when scientists discovered the true properties of radioactivity and found out how detrimental the effect of radiation on the human body.
Marie Curie died in 1934 from radiation sickness caused by long-term exposure to radium.
Nebulium and Coronium
The periodic table not only ordered the chemical elements into a single coherent system, but also made it possible to predict many discoveries of new elements. At the same time, some chemical "elements" were declared non-existent on the basis that they did not fit into the concept of the periodic law. The most famous story is the "discovery" of new elements of nebulium and coronium.
When studying the solar atmosphere, astronomers discovered spectral lines that they could not identify with any of the chemical elements known on earth. Scientists have suggested that these lines belong to a new element, which was called coronium (because the lines were discovered during the study of the "crown" of the Sun - the outer layer of the star's atmosphere).
A few years later, astronomers made another discovery by studying the spectra of gaseous nebulae. The discovered lines, which again could not be identified with anything terrestrial, were attributed to another chemical element - nebulium.
The discoveries were criticized, since Mendeleev's periodic table no longer had room for elements with the properties of nebulium and coronium. After checking, it was found that nebulium is ordinary terrestrial oxygen, and coronium is highly ionized iron.
The material was created on the basis of information from open sources. Prepared by Vasily Makagonov @vmakagonov
In his 1668 work, Robert Boyle provided a list of indecomposable chemical elements. There were only fifteen of them at that time. At the same time, the scientist did not claim that, in addition to the elements he listed, there were no more, and the question of their number remained open.
A hundred years later, the French chemist Antoine Lavoisier compiled a new list of elements known to science. 35 were included in his roster chemical substances, of which 23 were subsequently recognized as those same indecomposable elements.
The search for new elements was carried out by chemists all over the world and progressed quite successfully. The decisive role in this issue was played by the Russian chemist Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev: it was he who came up with the idea of the possibility of a relationship between the atomic mass of elements and their place in the "hierarchy". In his own words, "it is necessary to look for ... correspondences between the individual properties of elements and their atomic weights."
Comparing the chemical elements known at that time, Mendeleev, after a colossal work, eventually discovered that dependence, the general regular connection between the individual elements, in which they appear as a single whole, where the properties of each element are not something that exists by itself, but periodically and a regularly recurring phenomenon.
So in February 1869 it was formulated periodic law of Mendeleev. In the same year, on March 6, a report prepared by D.I. Mendeleev, under the title "Relationship of properties with the atomic weight of elements" was presented by N.A. Menshutkin at a meeting of the Russian Chemical Society.
In the same year, the publication appeared in the German magazine "Zeitschrift für Chemie", and in 1871, a detailed publication by D.I. Mendeleev, dedicated to his discovery - "Die periodische Gesetzmässigkeit der Elemente" (Periodic regularity of chemical elements).
Creating a Periodic Table
Despite the fact that the idea was formed by Mendeleev in a rather short period of time, he could not formalize his conclusions for a long time. It was important for him to present his idea in the form of a clear generalization, strict and visual system. As D.I. Mendeleev in a conversation with Professor A.A. Inostrantsev: "Everything came together in my head, but I can't express it in a table."
According to biographers, after this conversation, the scientist worked on creating the table for three days and three nights, not going to bed. He went through various options in which elements could be combined to organize in a table. The work was also complicated by the fact that at the time of the creation of the periodic system, not all chemical elements were known to science.
In 1869-1871, Mendeleev continued to develop the ideas of periodicity put forward and accepted by the scientific community. One of the steps was the introduction of the concept of the place of an element in the periodic system as a set of its properties in comparison with the properties of other elements.
It was on the basis of this, and also based on the results obtained in the course of studying the sequence of changes in glass-forming oxides, that Mendeleev corrected the values of the atomic masses of 9 elements, including beryllium, indium, uranium and others.
During the work of D.I. Mendeleev sought to fill empty cells table he compiled. As a result, in 1870 he predicted the discovery of elements unknown at that time to science. Mendeleev calculated atomic masses and described the properties of three elements not yet discovered then:
- "ekaaluminum" - discovered in 1875, named gallium,
- "ekabora" - discovered in 1879, named scandium,
- "ekasilicia" - discovered in 1885, named germanium.
His next realized predictions were the discovery of eight more elements, including polonium (discovered in 1898), astatine (discovered in 1942-1943), technetium (discovered in 1937), rhenium (discovered in 1925) and France (discovered in 1939).
In 1900, Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev and William Ramsay came to the conclusion that it was necessary to include elements of a special, zero group in the periodic system. Today, these elements are called noble gases (until 1962, these gases were called inert gases).
The principle of organization of the periodic system
In his table, D.I. Mendeleev arranged the chemical elements in rows in order of increasing mass, choosing the length of the rows so that the chemical elements in the same column had similar chemical properties.
Noble gases - helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon and radon are reluctant to react with other elements and show low chemical activity and therefore are in the far right column.
In contrast, the elements of the leftmost column - lithium, sodium, potassium and others react violently with other substances, the process is explosive. Elements in other columns of the table behave similarly - inside the column, these properties are similar, but vary when moving from one column to another.
The periodic system in its first version simply reflected the state of affairs existing in nature. Initially, the table did not explain in any way why this should be so. And only with the advent of quantum mechanics did the true meaning of the arrangement of elements in the periodic table become clear.
Chemical elements up to uranium (contains 92 protons and 92 electrons) are found in nature. Starting with number 93, there are artificial elements created in the laboratory.