History of the Development of the Periodic Table of Elements

The Beginnings of the Periodic Table Creating Some Early Blocks for the Periodic Table Precursors to the Periodic Table The Fathers of the Periodic Table The Modern Periodic Table

The Beginnings of the Periodic Table

Before written history, people were aware of some of the elements in the periodic table. Elements such as gold (Au), silver (Ag), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), tin (Sn), and mercury (Hg). It wasn't until 1649, however, until the first element was discovered through scientific inquiry by Hennig Brand . That element was phosphorous (P). By 1869, 63 elements had been discovered.

Creating Some Early Blocks for the Periodic Table

Between 1817-1829, Johann Dobereiner began to group elements with similar properties in to groups of three or triads. This began in 1817 when he noticed that the atomic weights of strontium, Sr, was halfway between the weights of calcium and barium. These elements possessed similar chemical properties. By 1829, he had discovered the a halogen triad made up of chlorine, bromine, and iodine and a alkali metal triad of lithium, sodium and potassium. He postulated that nature contained triads of elements in which the middle element had properties that were an average of the other two elements. Later, other scientists found other triads and recognized that elements could be grouped into set large than three. The poor accuracy of measurements such as that of atomic weights hindered grouping more elements.

Precursors to the Periodic Table

In 1862, A.E.Beguyer de Chancourtois was the first person to make use of atomic weights to reveal that the elements were arranged according to their atomic weights with similar elements occurring at regular intervals. He drew the elements as a continuous spiral around a cylinder divided into 16 parts. A list of elements was wrapped around a cylinder so that several sets of similar elements lined up, creating the first geometric representation of the periodic law

In 1863, John Newlands, an English chemist, proposed the Law of Octaves which stated that elements repeated their chemical properties every eighth element. The musical analogy was ridiculed at the time, but was found to be insightful after the work of Mendeleev and Meyer were published.

The Fathers of the Periodic Table

Lothar Meyer and Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev independently produced remarkably similar versions of the periodic table of elements at the essentially the same time. Meyer's 1864 textbook included a abbreviated version of a periodic table used to classify about half of the known elements. In 1868, Meyer constructed an extended table which he gave to a colleague for evaluation. This table unfortunately was not published until 1870, a year after Mendeleev's table was published. Mendeleev periodic table appeared in his work "On the Relationship of the Properties of the Elements to their Atomic Weights" in 1869. Mendeleev placed many elements out of order based on their accepted atomic weights at the time. Mendeleev predicted the existence and properties of unknown elements which he called eka-aluminum, eka-boron, and ekasilicon. The elements gallium, scandium and germanium were found later to fit his predictions quite well.

The Modern Periodic Table

Glenn Seaborg discovered the transuranium elements, atomic numbers 94 to 102. The completion of the actinide series allow Seaborg to redesign the periodic table into it current form. Both the lanthanide and actinide series of elements were placed under the rest of the periodic table. These elements technically should be placed between the alkaline earth metals and the transition metals, however, since this would make the periodic table too wide, they were placed below the rest of the elements. Dr. Seaborg and his colleagues are also responsible for the identification of more than 100 isotopes of elements.

Question: What Is the Difference Between an Element Group and Period?

Groups and periods are two ways of categorizing elements on the periodic table. Here is how to tell them apart and how they related to periodic table trends. Answer: Periods are horizontal rows (across) the periodic table, while groups are vertical columns (down) the table. Atomic number increases both as you move down a group or across a period.

Element Groups
Elements in a group share a common number of valence electrons. For example, all of the elements in the alkaline earth group have a valence of 2. Elements belonging to a group typically share several common properties.

Element Periods
Elements in a period share a highest unexcited electron energy level. There are more elements in some periods than others because the number of elements is determined by the number of electrons allowed in each energy sublevel.

Types of Elements:
A. Metals have luster, conduct heat and electricity well, are malleable (can be bent/reshaped) and ductile (drawn into a wire) B. Nonmetals are not good conductors at all and they tend to be brittle C. Metalloids Possess some properties of metals and Nonmetals

Periodic Trends
Periodic trends are specific patterns that are present in the periodic table, which illustrate different aspects of a certain element, including its size and its properties with electrons. The main periodic trends include: electronegativity, ionization energy, electron affinity, atomic radius, melting point, and metallic character. The periodic trends that arise from the arrangement of the periodic table provide chemists with an invaluable tool to quickly predict an element's properties. These trends exist because of the similar atomic structure of the elements within their respective group families or period and the periodic nature of the elements.

Periodic Trends for Electronegativity

Electronegativity can be understood as chemical property describing an atom's ability to attract and bind to electrons. Because electronegativity is a qualitative property, there is not a standardized method for calculating electronegativity. However, the scale that most chemists use in quantifying electronegativity is the Pauling Scale, named after the chemist Linus Pauling. The numbers assigned by the Pauling scale are dimensionless due to electronegativity being largely qualitative. Electronegativity values for each element can be found on certain periodic tables. An example is provided below.

Figure 1. Periodic Table of Electronegativity values Electronegativity measures an atom's strength to attract and form bonds with electrons. This property exists due to the electronic configuration of atoms. Most atoms prefer to fulfilling the octet rule (having the valence, or outer, shell comprise of 8 electrons). Since elements on the left side of the periodic table have less than a half-full valence shell, the energy required to gain electrons is significantly higher compared to the energy required to lose electrons. As a result, the elements on the left side of the periodic table generally lose electrons in forming bonds. Conversely, elements on the right side of the periodic table are more energy-efficient in gaining electrons to create a complete valence shell of 8 electrons. This effectively describes the nature of electronegativity: the more inclined an atom is to gain electrons, the more likely that atom will pull electrons toward itself.

As you move to the right across a period of elements, electronegativity increases. When the valence shell of an atom is less than half full, it requires less energy to lose an electron than gain one and thus, it is easier to lose an electron. Conversely, when the valence shell is more than half full, it is easier to pull an electron into the valence shell than to donate one. As you move down a group, electronegativity decreases. This is because the atomic number increases down a group and thus there is an increased distance between the valence electrons and nucleus, or a greater atomic radius. Important exceptions of the above rules include the noble gases, lanthanides, and actinides. The noble gases possess a complete valence shell and do not usually attract electrons. The lanthanides and actinides possess a more complicated chemistry that does not generally follow any trends. Therefore, noble gases, lanthanides, and actinides do not have electronegativity values. As for the transition metals, while they have values, there is little variance among them as you move across the period and up and down a group. This is because of their metallic properties that affect their ability to attract electrons as easily as the other elements.

With these two general trends in mind, we can deduce that the most electronegative element is fluorine, which weighs in at a hefty 3.98 Pauling units.

Figure2.Periodic Table showing Electronegativity Trend

Periodic Trends for Ionization Energy Ionization Energy is the amount of energy required to remove an electron from a neutral atom in its gaseous phase. Conceptually, ionization energy is considered the opposite of electronegativity. The lower this energy is, the more readily the atom becomes a cation. Therefore, the higher this energy is, the more unlikely the atom becomes a cation. Generally, elements on the right side of the periodic table have a higher ionization energy because their valence shell is nearly filled. Elements on the left side of the periodic table have low ionization energies because of their willingness to lose electrons and become cations. Thus, ionization energy increases from left to right on the periodic table. Another factor that affects ionization energy is electron shielding. Electron shielding describes the ability of an atom's inner electrons to shield its positively-charged nucleus from its valence electrons. When moving to the right on a period of elements, the number of electrons increases and the strength of shielding increases. As a result, it is easier for valence shell electrons to ionize and thus the ionization energy decreases when going down a group. In certain texts, electron shielding may also be known as screening.

The ionization energy of the elements within a period generally increases from left to right. This is due to valence shell stability. The ionization energy of the elements within a group generally decreases from top to bottom. This is due to electron shielding. The noble gases possess very high ionization energies because of their full valence shell as indicated in the graph. Note that Helium has the highest ionization energy of all the elements.

Figure 3. Graph showing the Ionization Energy of the Elements from Hydrogen to Argon Some elements can have several ionization energies, so we refer to these varying energies as the first ionization energy, the second ionization energy, third ionization energy, etc. The first ionization energy is to the energy needed to remove the outermost, or highest, energy electron and the second ionization energy is the energy required to remove any subsequent high-energy electron from a gaseous cation. Below are the formulas for calculating the first and second ionization energies. First Ionization Energy:

X(g)X+(g)+e
Second Ionization Energy:

X+(g)X2+(g)+e
Generally, any subsequent ionization energies (2nd, 3rd, etc.) follow the same periodic trend as the first ionization energy.

Figure4. Periodic Table Showing Ionization Energy Trend Ionization energies decrease as atomic radii increase. This observation is affected by n (the principle quantum number) and Zeff (based on the atomic number and shows how many protons are seen in the atom) on the ionization energy (I). Given by the following equation:

I=RHZ2eff/n2

Going across a period, the Zeff increases and n (principal quantum number) remains the same, so that the ionization energy increases. Going down a group, the n increases and Zeff increases slightly, the ionization energy decreases.

Periodic Trends for Electron Affinity

Like the name suggests, electron affinity describes the ability of an atom to accept an electron. Unlike electronegativity, electron affinity is a quantitative measure that measures the energy change that occurs when an electron is added to a neutral gas atom. When measuring electron affinity, the more negative the value, the more of an affinity to electrons that atom has. Electron affinity generally decreases down a group of elements because each atom is larger than the atom above it (this is the atomic radius trend, which will be discussed later in this text). This means that an added electron is further away from the atom's nucleus compared to its position in the smaller atom. With a larger distance between the negatively-charged electron and the positively-charged nucleus, the force of attraction is relatively weaker. Therefore, electron affinity decreases. Moving from left to right across a period, atoms become smaller as the forces of attraction become stronger. This causes the electron to move closer to the nucleus, thus increasing the electron affinity from left to right across a period.

Electron affinity increases from left to right within a period. This is caused by the decrease in atomic radius. Electron affinity decreases from top to bottom within a group. This is caused by the increase in atomic radius.

Figure5Periodic Table showing Electron Affinity Trend

Periodic Trends for Atomic Radius For atoms, the atomic radius is one-half the distance between the nuclei of two atoms is (just like a radius is half the diameter of a circle). However, this idea is complicated by the fact that not all atoms are normally bound together in the same way. Some are bound by covalent bonds in molecules, some are attracted to each other in ionic crystals, and others are held in metallic crystals. Nevertheless, it is possible for a vast majority of elements to form covalent molecules in which two like atoms are held together by a single covalent bond. The covalent radius of these molecules is often referred to as the atomic radius. This distance is measured in picometers. Going through each of the elements of the periodic table, patterns of the atomic radius can be seen. Atomic size gradually decreases from left to right across a period of elements. This is because, within a period or family of elements, all electrons are being added to the same shell. But, at the same time, protons are being added to the nucleus, making it more positively charged. The effect of increasing proton number is greater than that of the increasing electron number; therefore, there is a greater nuclear attraction. This means that the nucleus attracts the electrons more strongly, having the atom's shell pulled closer to the nucleus. The valence electrons are held closer towards the nucleus of the atom. As a result, the atomic radius decreases. Going down a group, it can be seen that atomic radius increases. The valence electrons occupy higher levels due to the increasing quantum number (n). As a result, the valence electrons are further away from the nucleus as the n increases. Electron shielding prevents these outer electrons from being attracted to the nucleus; thus, they are loosely held and the resulting atomic radius is large.

Atomic radius decreases from left to right within a period. This is caused by the increase in the number of protons and electrons across a period. One proton has a greater effect than one electron; thus, a lot of electrons will get pulled towards the nucleus, resulting in a smaller radius.

Atomic radius increases from top to bottom within a group. This is caused by electron shielding.

Figure 6. Periodic Table showing Atomic Radius Trend Periodic Trends for Melting Point Melting points are the amount of energy required to break a bond(s) to change the solid phase of a substance to a liquid. Generally, the stronger the bond between the atoms of an element, the higher the energy requirement in breaking that bond. Since temperature is directly proportional to energy, a high bond dissociation energy correlates to a high temperature. Melting points are varied and don't generally form a distinguishable trend across the periodic table. However, certain conclusions can be drawn from the following graph.

Metals generally possess a high melting point. Most non-metals possess low melting points. The non-metal carbon possesses the highest boiling point of all the elements. The semi-metal boron also possesses a high melting point.

Figure 7. Chart of Melting Points of Various Elements Periodic Trends for Metallic Character The metallic character of an element can be defined as how readily an atom can lose an electron. As you move from right to left across a period, metallic character increases because the attraction between valence electron and the nucleus is weaker, thus enabling an easier loss of electrons. Metallic character increases as you move down a group because the atomic size is increasing. When the atomic size increases, the outer shells are farther away. The principle quantum number increases and average electron density moves farther from nucleus. The electrons of the valence shell have less of an attraction to the nucleus and, as a result, can lose electrons more readily, causing an increase in metallic character.

o o o

Metallic characteristics decrease from left to right across a period. This is caused by the decrease in radius (above it is stated that Zeff causes this) of the atom which allows the outer electrons to ionize more readily. Metallic characteristics increase down a group. Electron shielding causes the atomic radius to increase thus the outer electrons ionizes more readily than electrons in smaller atoms. Metallic character relates to the ability to lose electrons, and nonmetallic character relates to the ability to gain electrons. Another easier way to remember the trend of metallic character is that as you move from left and down towards the bottom-left corner of the periodic table, metallic character increases because you are heading towards Groups 1 and 2, or the Alkali and Alkaline metal groups. Likewise, if you move up and to the right to the upper-right corner of the periodic table, metallic character decreases because you are passing by to the right side of the staircase, which indicate the nonmetals. These include the Group 8, the noble gases, and other common gases such as oxygen and nitrogen. In other words: Move left across period and down the group: increase metallic character (heading towards alkali and alkaline metals) Move right across period and up the group: decrease metallic character (heading towards nonmetals like noble gases)

Figure8. Periodic Table of Metallic Character Trend

HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERIODIC TABLE

Although Dmitri Mendeleev is often considered the "father" of the periodic table, the work of many scientists contributed to its present form.

In the Beginning
A necessary prerequisite to the construction of the periodic table was the discovery of the individual elements. Although elements such as gold, silver, tin, copper, lead and mercury have been known since antiquity, the first scientific discovery of an element occurred in 1649 when Hennig Brand discovered phosphorous. During the next 200 years, a vast body of knowledge concerning the properties of elements and their compounds was acquired by chemists (view a 1790 article on the elements). By 1869, a total of 63 elements had been discovered. As the number of known elements grew, scientists began to recognize patterns in properties and began to develop classification schemes. Law of Triads In 1817 Johann Dobereiner noticed that the atomic weight of strontium fell midway between the weights of calcium and barium, elements possessing similar chemical properties. In 1829, after discovering the halogen triad composed of chlorine, bromine, and iodine and the alkali metal triad of lithium, sodium and potassium he proposed that nature contained triads of elements the middle element had properties that were an average of the other two members when ordered by the atomic weight (the Law of Triads). This new idea of triads became a popular area of study. Between 1829 and 1858 a number of scientists (Jean Baptiste Dumas, Leopold Gmelin, Ernst Lenssen, Max von Pettenkofer, and J.P. Cooke) found that these types of chemical relationships extended beyond the triad. During this time fluorine was added to the halogen group; oxygen, sulfur,selenium and tellurium were grouped into a family while nitrogen, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, and bismuth were classified as another. Unfortunately, research in this area was hampered by the fact that accurate values of were not always available.

First Attempts At Designing a Periodic Table

If a periodic table is regarded as an ordering of the chemical elements demonstrating the periodicity of chemical and physical properties, credit for the first periodic table (published in 1862) probably should be given to a French geologist, A.E.Beguyer de Chancourtois. De Chancourtois transcribed a list of the elements positioned on a cylinder in terms of increasing atomic weight. When the cylinder was constructed so that 16 mass units could be written on the cylinder per turn, closely related elements were lined up vertically. This led de Chancourtois to propose that "the properties of the elements are the properties of numbers." De Chancourtois was first to recognize that elemental properties reoccur every seven elements, and using this chart, he was able to predict the stoichiometry of several metallic oxides. Unfortunately, his chart included some ions and compounds in addition to elements.

Law of Octaves
John Newlands, an English chemist, wrote a paper in 1863 which classified the 56 established elements into 11 groups based on similar physical properties, noting that many pairs of similar elements existed which differed by some multiple of eight in atomic weight. In 1864 Newlands published his version of the periodic table and proposed the Law of Octaves (by analogy with the seven intervals of the musical scale). This law stated that any given element will exhibit analogous behavior to the eighth element following it in the table.

Who Is The Father of the Periodic Table?

There has been some disagreement about who deserves credit for being the "father" of the periodic table, the German Lothar Meyer (pictured here) or the Russian Dmitri Mendeleev. Both chemists produced remarkably similar results at the same time working independently of one another. Meyer's 1864 textbook included a rather abbreviated version of a periodic table used to classify the elements. This consisted of about half of the known elements listed in order of their atomic weight and demonstrated periodic valence chages as a function of atomic weight. In 1868, Meyer constructed an extended table which he gave to a colleague for evaluation. Unfortunately for Meyer, Mendeleev's table became available to the scientific community via publication (1869) before Meyer's appeared (1870).

Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev (1834-1907), the youngest of 17 children was born in the Siberian town of Tobol'sk where his father was a teacher of Russian literature and philosophy (portrait by Ilyia Repin). Mendeleev was not considered an outstanding student in his early education partly due to his dislike of the classical languages that were an important educational requirement at the time even though he showed prowess in mathematics and science. After his father's death, he and his mother moved to St. Petersburg to pursue a university education. After being denied admission to both the University of Moscow and St. Petersburg University because of his provincial background and unexceptional academic background, he finally earned a place at the Main Pedagogical Institute (St. Petersburg Institute). Upon graduation, Mendeleev took a position teaching science in a gymnasium. After a time as a teacher, he was admitted to graduate work at St. Petersburg University where he earned a Master's degree in 1856. Mendeleev so impressed his instructors that he was retained to lecture in chemistry. After spending 1859 and 1860 in Germany furthering his chemical studies, he secured a position as professor of chemistry at St. Petersburg University, a position he retained until 1890. While writing a textbook on systematic inorganic chemistry, Principles of Chemistry, which appeared in thirteen editions the last being in 1947, Mendeleev organized his material in terms of the families of the known elements which displayed similar properties. The first part of the text was devoted to the well known chemistry of the halogens. Next, he chose to cover the chemistry of the metallic elements in order of combining power -- alkali metals first (combining power of one), alkaline earths (two), etc. However, it was difficult to classify metals such as copper and mercury which had multiple combining powers, sometimes one and other times two. While tryuing to sort out this dilema, Mendeleev noticed patterns in the properties and atomic weights of halogens, alkali metals and alkaline metals. He observed similarities between the series Cl-K-Ca , Br-/Rb-Sr and I-Cs-Ba. In an effort to extend this pattern to other elements, he created a card for each of the 63 known elements. Each card contained the element's symbol, atomic weight and its characteristic chemical and physical properties. When Mendeleev arranged the cards on a table in order of ascending atomic weight grouping elements of similar properties together in a manner not unlike the card arrangement in his favorite solitare card game, patience, the periodic table was formed. From this table, Mendeleev developed his statement of the periodic law and published his work On the Relationship of the Properties of the Elements to their Atomic Weights in 1869. The advantage of Mendeleev's table over previous attempts was that it exhibited similarities not only in small units such as the triads, but showed similarities in an entire network of vertical, horizontal, and diagonal relationships. In 1906, Mendeleev came within one vote of being awarded the Nobel Prize for his work. At the time that Mendeleev developed his periodic table since the experimentally determined atomic masses were not always accurate, he reordered elements despite their accepted masses. For example, he changed the weight of beryllium from 14 to 9. This placed beryllium into Group 2 above magnesium whose properties it more closely resembled than where it had been located above nitrogen. In all Mendeleev found that 17 elements had to be moved to new positions from those indicated strictly by atomic weight for their properties to correlate with other elements. These changes indicated that there were errors in the accepted atomic weights of some elements (atomic weights were calculated from combining weights, the weight of an element that combines with a given weight of a standard.) However, even after corrections were made by redetermining atomic weights, some elements still needed to be placed out of order of their atomic weights. From the gaps present in his table, Mendeleev predicted the existence and properties of unknown elements which he called ekaaluminum, eka-boron, and eka-silicon. The elements gallium, scandium and germanium were found later to fit his predictions quite well. In addition to the fact that Mendeleev's table was published before Meyers', his work was more extensive predicting new or missing elements. In all Mendeleev predicted the existence of 10 new elements, of which seven were eventually discovered -- the other three, atomic weights 45, 146 and 175 do not exist. He also was incorrect in suggesting that the element pairs of argon-potassium, cobalt-nickel and tellurium-iodine should be interchanged in position due to inaccurate atomic weights. Although these elements did need to be interchanged, it was because of a flaw in the reasoning that periodicity is a function of atomic weight.

Discovery of the Noble Gases

In 1895 Lord Rayleigh reported the discovery of a new gaseous element named argon which proved to be chemically inert. This element did not fit any of the known periodic groups. In 1898, William Ramsey suggested that argon be placed into the periodic table between chlorine and potassium in a family with helium, despite the fact that argon's atomic weight was greater than that of potassium. This group was termed the "zero" group due to the zero valency of the elements. Ramsey accurately predicted the future discovery and properties neon. Atomic Structure and the Periodic Table Although Mendeleev's table demonstrated the periodic nature of the elements, it remained for the discoveries of scientists of the 20th Century to explain why the properties of the elements recur periodically.

In 1911 Ernest Rutherford published studies of the scattering of alpha particles by heavy atom nuclei which led to the determination of nuclear charge. He demonstrated that the nuclear charge on a nucleus was proportional to the atomic weight of the element. Also in 1911, A. van den Broek in a series of two papers proposed that the atomic weight of an element was approximately equal to the charge on an atom. This charge, later termed the atomic number, could be used to number the elements within the periodic table. In 1913, Henry Moseley (see a picture) published the results of his measurements of the wavelengths of the x-ray spectral lines of a number of elements which showed that the ordering of the wavelengths of the x-ray emissions of the elements coincided with the ordering of the elements by atomic number. With the discovery of isotopes of the elements, it became apparent that atomic weight was not the significant player in the periodic law as Mendeleev, Meyers and others had proposed, but rather, the properties of the elements varied periodically with atomic number. The question of why the periodic law exists was answered as scientists developed an understanding of the electronic structure of the elements beginning with Niels Bohr's studies of the organization of electrons into shells through G.N. Lewis' (see a picture) discoveries of bonding electron pairs.

The Modern Periodic Table

The last major changes to the periodic table resulted from Glenn Seaborg's work in the middle of the 20th Century. Starting with his discovery of plutonium in 1940, he discovered all the transuranic elements from 94 to 102. He reconfigured the periodic table by placing the actinide series below the lanthanide series. In 1951, Seaborg was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work. Element 106 has been named seaborgium (Sg) in his honor.

Question: What Is the Difference Between an Element Group and Period?

Groups and periods are two ways of categorizing elements on the periodic table. Here is how to tell them apart and how they related to periodic table trends. Answer: Periods are horizontal rows (across) the periodic table, while groups are vertical columns (down) the table. Atomic number increases both as you move down a group or across a period.

Element Groups
Elements in a group share a common number of valence electrons. For example, all of the elements in the alkaline earth group have a valence of 2. Elements belonging to a group typically share several common properties.

Element Periods
Elements in a period share a highest unexcited electron energy level. There are more elements in some periods than others because the number of elements is determined by the number of electrons allowed in each energy sublevel.

Types of Elements:
A. Metals have luster, conduct heat and electricity well, are malleable (can be bent/reshaped) and ductile (drawn into a wire) B. Nonmetals are not good conductors at all and they tend to be brittle C. Metalloids Possess some properties of metals and Nonmetals

The Periodic Trends

In chemistry, periodic trends are the tendencies of certain elemental characteristics to increase or decrease as one progresses along a row or column of the periodic table of elements.

All periodic trends of the chemicals are based on Coulomb's law . As distance from the protons in the nucleus to the valence electrons increases values associated with attributes such as electron affinity, ionization energy, and electronegativity decrease.

Atomic radius
Main article: Atomic radius

The atomic radius is the distance from the atomic nucleus to the outermost stable electron orbital in an atom that is at equilibrium. The atomic radius tends to decrease across a period from left to right because the effective nuclear charge increases, thereby attracting the orbiting electrons and lessening the radius. The atomic radius usually increases while going down a group due to the addition of a new energy level (shell). However, diagonally, the number of electrons has a larger effect than the sizeable radius. For example, lithium (145 picometer) has a smaller atomic radius than magnesium (150 picometer).[citation needed] Atomic radius decreases from left to right across a period, and also increases from top to bottom down a group. Atomic radius can be further specified as:
Covalent radius: half the distance between two atoms of a diatomic compound, singly bonded. Van der Waals radius: half the distance between the nuclei of atoms of different molecules in a lattice of covalent molecules. Metallic radius: half the distance between two adjacent nuclei of atoms in a metallic lattice. Ionic radius: half the distance between two nuclei

Ionization energy
Main article: Ionization energy

The ionization potential is the minimum amount of energy required to remove one electron from each atom in a mole of atoms in the gaseous state. The first ionization energy is the energy required to remove one, the nth ionization energy is the energy required to remove the atom's nth electron, after the (n1) electrons before it have been removed. Trend-wise, ionization energy tends to increase while one progresses across a period because the greater number of protons (higher nuclear charge) attract the orbiting electrons more strongly, thereby increasing the energy required to remove one of the electrons. Ionization energy and ionization potentials are completely different.[citation needed] The potential is an intensive property and it is measured by "volt" ; whereas the energy is an extensive property expressed by "eV" or "kJ/mole". As one progresses down a group on the periodic table, the ionization energy will likely decrease since the valence electrons are farther away from the nucleus and experience a weaker attraction to the nucleus's positive charge. There will be an increase of ionization energy from left to right of a given period and a decrease from top to bottom. As a rule, it requires far less energy to remove an outer-shell electron than an inner-shell electron. As a result the ionization energies for a given element will increase steadily within a given shell, and when starting on the next shell down will show a drastic jump in ionization energy. Simply put, the lower the principal quantum number, the higher the ionization energy for the electrons within that shell. The exceptions are the elements in the boron and oxygen family, which require slightly less energy than the general trend. Helium has the highest ionization energy while Francium has the lowest.

Electron affinity
Main article: Electron affinity

The electron affinity of an atom can be described either as the energy gained by an atom when an electron is added to it, or conversely as the energy required to detach an electron from a singly charged anion. The sign of the electron affinity can be

quite confusing, as atoms that become more stable with the addition of an electron (and so are considered to have a higher electron affinity) show a decrease in potential energy; i.e. the energy gained by the atom appears to be negative. For atoms that become less stable upon gaining an electron, potential energy increases, which implies that the atom gains energy. In such a case, the atom's electron affinity value is positive.[1] Consequently, atoms with a more negative electron affinity value are considered to have a lower electron affinity (they are more receptive to gaining electrons), and vice versa. However in the reverse scenario where electron affinity is defined as the energy required to detach an electron from an anion, the energy value obtained will be of the same magnitude but have the opposite sign. This is because those atoms with a high electron affinity are less inclined to give up an electron, and so take more energy to remove the electron from the atom. In this case, the atom with the more positive energy value has the higher electron affinity. As one progresses from left to right across a period, the electron affinity will increase. Although it may seem that Flourine should have the greatest ionization energy, the small size of flourine generates enough repulsion that Chlorine has the greatest ionization energy.

Electronegativity
Main article: Electronegativity

Electronegativity is a measure of the ability of an atom or molecule to attract pairs of electrons in the context of a chemical bond. The type of bond formed is largely determined by the difference in electronegativity between the atoms involved, using the Pauling scale. Trend-wise, as one moves from left to right across a period in the periodic table, the electronegativity increases due to the stronger attraction that the atoms obtain as the nuclear charge increases. Moving down in a group, the electronegativity decreases due to the longer distance between the nucleus and the valence electron shell, thereby decreasing the attraction, making the atom have less of an attraction for electrons or protons. In the group 13 elements electronegativity increases from aluminium to thallium. In group 14 electronegativity of lead is higher than that of tin.

Summary
For atomic number vs. atomic radius, it has a trend of four peaks that quickly decline in value because of an increase in the nuclear charge and also an increase in the number of electrons in the same principal energy level. Increasing the quantity of charge attracts the electrons closer to the nucleus. For atomic number vs. melting point, there is almost a straight line of an upward slope because the number of ionic bonds increase with the atomic number; therefore, requiring a higher temperature. For atomic number vs. ionization energy, it increases as you move from the alkali metal to the noble gas because when the nuclear charge increase and the atomic radius decrease, the increased attraction makes it more difficult to remove an electron. Finally, for atomic number vs. electronegativity, the trend is that it increases as it goes from left to right and decreases as it goes from top to bottom because it depends on the number of atoms. The electronegativity levels peak from 0 to a certain height, then back down to 0 because the electron levels fluctuate up and down between atomic numbers. Moving Left Right Atomic Radius Decreases Ionization Energy Increases Electronegativity Increases Moving Top Bottom Atomic Radius Increases Ionization Energy Decreases Electronegativity Decreases

Metallic properties
Metallic properties increases down the group as the size of an atom increases which leads to lesser attraction between the nuclei and the electrons thus the outer most electrons of a metallic atom is loosely bound which makes metals a good conductor of heat and electricity. As we move across the period we notice that the size of the atom decreases which means the attraction between the nuclei and the electrons increases so the metallic character decreases.

Non-metallic properties
Non-metallic property increases across a period and decreases down the group due to the same reason.