Periodic Table Challenge

 2019 is the International Year of the Periodic Table and IUPAC has a game you can play online!
Here is the link https://iupac.org/100/pt-challenge/

Before you can play, you need to choose an avatar (an element ofcourse!).
Now I don't want to influence your decision in anyway, but ..... the ONLY element named after a woman is Meitnerium, Mt, after Lise Meitner (Curium is named after the wife and husband team of Marie and Pierre Curie).

There are 15 multiple choice questions to answer.
Complete the quiz and generate your certificate.
Get 9 or more correct answers and you get the chance to enter the Nobelium Contest with a chance to win a limited edition Periodic Table autographed by a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry.

The questions are really interesting. Here is a sample..

•  In the 1920s, many companies promoted their products by adding radium. One of the top-selling radium-containing products was 'Radithor'. What was it?

• In the 1880s, Lord Rayleigh found that the density of nitrogen from air was 0.5% greater than the density of nitrogen obtained from other sources. What discovery resulted from this small discrepancy? 

• The 1944 American film ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’, starring Cary Grant, features what use of this chemical element? 

• Despite having few uses, erbium has one very important use that makes it beneficial to the modern world. Which one? 

• Whereas in humans oxygen is bound to iron-containing haemoglobin, spiders and other animals transport oxygen via a different protein in their blood, hemocyanin, which contains copper. What is the color of their blood?

• What happens when a teaspoon made of gallium is used to stir a cup of warm tea?

• The atomic weight of argon varies depending on its source. What is the reason for this phenomenon?

•  Vincent van Gogh’s painting Sunflowers is getting darker due to the presence of chromium in the paint. What is the chemistry behind this change in appearance?

•  When tellurium is absorbed through the skin, it is excreted through sweat as hydrogen telluride making you unfit for social interactions. Why?

• Indium is mostly used to make indium tin oxide which is an important part of touchscreens. How did indium get its name?

•  What name was proposed for bromine by its discoverer, the French scientist Antoine Balard?

 

Mendeleev's Biggest Failure

2019, the International Year of the Periodic Table, marks the 150^th anniversary of Dmitri Mendeleev's formal presentation of his Periodic Table to the Russian Chemical Society on 6^th March 1869.
His Periodic Table is arguably the most important breakthrough in the history of Chemistry because it not only organised the elements into groups based on their properties, it also continues to allow us to make predictions about the physical and chemical properties of elements.
Yet, despite its predictive capacity, Mendeleev failed to predict an entire group of elements!

Read all about it in the March 2019 issue of AUS-e-NEWS.

Subscribe to AUS-e-TUTE's free quarterly newsletter AUS-e-NEWS at 

https://www.ausetute.com.au/ausenews.html 

International Year of the Periodic Table

It's 2019, and, the Periodic Table of the Elements is officially 150 years old.

The United Nations General Assembly and UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) has proclaimed 2019 as the International Year of the Periodic Table.
Look at activities, or register your own activity at https://www.iypt2019.org/

And you can download a free copy of the most recent periodic table (last updated 1^st December 2018) here

Properties of Oxides

How do you tell if an oxide is acidic, basic, amphoteric?
How do you know what sort of bonding and structure an oxide has?
What happens if you add on oxide to some strong acid?
What happens if you add an oxide to some strong base?

AUS-e-TUTE has just uploaded new resources to help you learn about the properties of oxides.
AUS-e-TUTE members should log-in to use the new:

• tutorial
• game
• test
• exam
• quiz
• worksheet wizard

Not an AUS-e-TUTE Member?
There is a "free-to-view" tutorial currently available at : http://www.ausetute.com.au/trendoxide.html

Join AUS-e-TUTE and start to improve your understanding of chemistry today!

Want to know how an AUS-e-TUTE membership will help you?
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Blocks of the Periodic Table

The Periodic Table of the Elements is a truly amazing tool, it contains an incredible amount of information in a very small space.
One of the first skills chemistry students need to master is how to extract all this valuable information about elements from the Periodic Table.
AUS-e-TUTE already has a number of resources to help students develop these skills, but we've just added a new set of resources to help you locate the s block, p block, d block and f block elements.
AUS-e-TUTE Members should log-in the Members ONLY area of the website to access the new resources (tutorial, game, test, exam, drill, quiz, worksheet wizard, interactive learning activity).

If you are not already an AUS-e-TUTE Member, there is a free-to-view tutorial available at:

http://www.ausetute.com.au/spdfblocks.html

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Ready to improve your chemistry results?
Join AUS-e-TUTE

Mine the Moon!

After The Jade Rabbit lander touched down on the Moon in December 2013, the Chinese space agency publicly suggested establishing mining bases on the Moon.

What could be so valuable that it would warrant the cost of going to the Moon to mine it then bringing it back to Earth to be used?

Gold? No.

Diamonds? No again.

Rare earth elements!

Why have rare earth elements (REE) become so important?

Find out in this edition of AUS-e-NEWS.

If you haven't received your December 2016 issue of AUS-e-NEWS in your inbox, please email us at  

 

Elemental Fun

For this activity you will need a modern Periodic Table
(here's one I prepared earlier at http://www.ausetute.com.au/pertable.html )

This activity is designed to let students have some fun while they use a Periodic Table to extract information about elements (names, symbols, atomic number and atomic weight).

Ask the students a question.
Students use a Periodic Table find the answers.
After doing a few of these, the students will usually start making up their own questions and answers.
They can try out their questions/answers on their fellow students (and you!).

Names from Symbols

1. Question: What is candy made of?
    Answer: calcium, nitrogen and dysprosium (Ca N Dy )

2. Question: What ingredients do you need to make chocolate?
    Answer: carbon, holmium, cobalt, lanthanum, tellurium (C Ho Co La Te)

3. Question: What elements make up a body?
    Answer: boron, oxygen, dysprosium (B O Dy)

4. Question: What makes up the atmosphere?
     Answer: astatine, molybdenum, sulfur, phosphorus, helium, rhenium (At Mo S P He Re)

5. Question: Prove that these elements are compounds!

• xenon (It's made up of xenon, nobelium nitrogen, Xe No N)
• neon (It's made up of neon, oxygen, nitrogen, Ne O N)
• iron (It's made up of iridium, oxygen, nitrogen, Ir O N)
• copper (It's made up of cobalt, phosphorus (twice), erbium, Co P P Er)
• silver (It's made up of sulfur, iodine, livermorium, erbium, S I Lv Er)
• arsenic (It's made up of argon, selenium, nitrogen, iodine, carbon, Ar Se N I C)

6. Question: What is the most negative element?

    Answer: nobelium, it always spells No

Symbols from Names

1. Question: What fruit is made up of 1 part barium and two parts sodium?

    Answer: Ba Na Na

2. Question: Can you use potassium, nickel and iron to cut an apple?

    Answer: Yes because they make a K Ni Fe

3. Question: If you add some fluorine, uranium and nitrogen to a game, what will happen?

    Answer: It will be more F U N !

4. Question:  What natural fiber is made up of lithium, neon and nitrogen?

    Answer: Li Ne N 

5. Question: What sort of jokes do chemists make out of cobalt, radon, and yttrium?

   Answer: Co Rn Y jokes.

Symbols from Atomic Numbers (crack the code)

1. Code: 1,18,15 

    Clue: A heavenly musical instrument?

    Answer: harp, H (Z=1), Ar ( Z=18), P (Z=15)

2. Code:  66, 7, 95, 53, 52

    Clue: Explosive stuff!

    Answer: dynamite, Dy(Z=66), N(Z=7), Am(Z=95), I(Z=53), Te(Z=52)

3. Code: 20, 28, 10

    Clue: What a cat is afraid of?

    Answer: canine, Ca(Z=20), Ni(Z=28), Ne(Z=10)

4. Code: 1, 85

    Clue: Head covering?

    Answer: hat, H(Z=1), At(Z=85)

5. Code: 67, 8, 19

    Clue: Somewhere to hang your coat?

    Answer: hook, Ho(Z=67), O(Z=8), K(Z=19)

Molecular Weight from Symbols

1. Question: What is a Chemist's favourite number?

    Answer: 315.02 because it is Lu C K Y (175 + 12.01 + 39.1 + 88.91 = 315.02)

2. Question: What is the molecular weight of a gene?

    Answer: 92.82 because it's made up of Ge and Ne (72.64 + 20.18 = 92.82)

3. Question: What is the value of life?

    Answer: 62.791 Li Fe (6.941 + 55.85 = 62.791)

4. Question: What does a boy weigh?

    Answer: 115.72 B O Y (10.81 + 16.00 + 88.91 = 115.72)

5. Question: How heavy is a phone?

    Answer: 68.158 P H O Ne (30.97 + 1.008 + 16.00 + 20.18 = 68.158)

Words You Can Make Using the First Twenty Elements Only

• Al O Ne
• Ar C
• Ar K
• B Ar
• B Ar K
• B Ar N
• Be Ar
• B Li N K
• B Li S S
• B O Ar
• B O Ne
• B O O K
• B O S S
• Ca B
• C Al F
• Ca N
• Ca N Al
• Ca Ne
• Ca N O N
• Ca P
• C Ar
• C Ar B O N
• Ca S H
• C H O O K
• C H O P
• C Li C K
• C Li F F
• C Li N K
• Cl O C K
• Cl O Ne
• C O B
• C O Ne
• C O O K
• C O S H
• F Ar
• F Li C K
• F Li P
• F O Al
• H Al F
• H Al O
• H Ar K
• H Ar P
• He Al
• He Ar
• H O C K
• H O N K
• H O P
• K Na C K
• K N O B
• K N O C K
• Li Ar
• Li C K
• Li Ne
• Li N K
• Li P S
• Li S P
• Na B
• Na P
• Ne O N
• Ne P Al
• N O O K
• O Ne
• O P Al
• P Al
• P Ar
• P Ar K
• P H O Ne
• P O P
• S Ca N
• S C O Ne
• S He
• S He Ar
• Si C K
• Si N
• Si N K
• S Li C K
• S Li P
• S Na C K
• S Na P
• S O B
• S O C K
• S O N Ar
• S P O O K

Which Element has the Smallest Atomic Radius?

Question: Write the symbol for the element which has the smallest atomic radius Na, Si, Mg, P.

Answer: In general, atomic radius decreases going across a period of the Periodic Table.
Sodium (Na), magnesium (Mg), silicon (Si) and phosphorus (P) all belong to the third period.
In order of increasing atomic number they are: Na (Z=11), Mg (Z=12), Si (Z=14), P(Z=15)
Therefore, in order of decreasing atomic radius they are: Na > Mg > Si > P
So, phosphorus, symbol P, has the smallest atomic radius.

Read more about trends in atomic radius at AUS-e-TUTE: http://www.ausetute.com.au/trendar.html

Number of elements in period 2

Question: Give the number of elements in period 2 of the periodic table
Answer: 8

The rows going from left to right across the Periodic Table are called Periods.
The periods are numbered from 1 at the top to 7 on the bottom.
The first period contains only 2 elements: hydrogen and helium.
The second period contains 8 elements: lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen,  fluorine and neon.

Find out more about how the periodic table is arranged at http://www.ausetute.com.au/pertable.html

Find more about the elements making up Period 2 at http://www.ausetute.com.au/trendpd2.html

Essential Elements

Most of the mass of the human body is made up of just 6 elements:

• 65% oxygen
• 18.5% carbon
• 9.5% hydrogen
• 3.2% nitrogen
• 1.5% calcium
• 1% phosphorus

Carbon and hydrogen are the building blocks making up organic (carbon) molecules, and so, since the human body is just an incredibly complicated organic chemical factory, it is no surprise that carbon and hydrogen make up such a huge amount of the mass of a human body. Oxygen is present in most of the biochemicals making up your body, while nitrogen is an essential component of proteins. Why is there so much phosphorus? Phosphorus and oxygen combine to make up the glue that holds your DNA together, no phosphorus, no DNA, no you! And calcium is ofcourse present in bones and teeth.
Then there are minor amounts of other elements such as potassium, sulfur, sodium, chlorine and magnesium which make up less than 1% of the remaining mass of the human body.

Some elements, like iron, are absolutely essential in order for the human body to survive, but are present in extremely minute amounts, for iron this is about 0.006%

H																		He
Li	Be												B	C	N	O	F	Ne
Na	Mg												Al	Si	P	S	Cl	Ar
K	Ca		Sc	Ti	V	Cr	Mn	Fe	Co	Ni	Cu	Zn	Ga	Ge	As	Se	Br	Kr
Rb	Sr		Y	Zr	Nb	Mo	Tc	Ru	Rh	Pd	Ag	Cd	In	Sn	Sb	Te	I	Xe
Cs	Ba	*	Lu	Hf	Ta	W	Re	Os	Ir	Pt	Au	Hg	Tl	Pb	Bi	Po	At	Rn
Fr	Ra	**	Lr	Rf	Db	Sg	Bh	Hs	Mt	Ds	Rg	Cn	Uut	Fl	Uup	Lv	Uus	Uuo
		*	La	Ce	Pr	Nd	Pm	Sm	Eu	Gd	Tb	Dy	Ho	Er	Tm	Yb
		**	Ac	Th	Pa	U	Np	Pu	Am	Cm	Bk	Cf	Es	Fm	Md	No

Vanderbilt University Scientists have just found out that bromine is also essential.It appears that bromine is important to an enzyme that is used to make a particular type of sulfur-nitrogen bond within the collagen IV structure used to make the scaffold for cells.

Reference:
A. Scott McCall, Christopher F. Cummings, Gautam Bhave, Roberto Vanacore, Andrea Page-McCaw, Billy G. Hudson. Bromine Is an Essential Trace Element for Assembly of Collagen IV Scaffolds in Tissue Development and Architecture. Cell, 2014; 157 (6): 1380 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2014.05.009

Further Reading
Periodic Table
Metals and Non-metals

Percentage Composition
Mass-Mole Calculations 

Suggested Study Questions:

1.  Give the chemical symbol for each of the following elements:
   • oxygen
   • carbon
   • hydrogen
   • nitrogen
2. Give the name for each of the following elements:
   • Fe
   • Ca
   • P
   • K
   • Mg
3. Give the atomic number for each of the following elements
   • sulfur
   • sodium
   • iodine
   • Cl
   • F
   • Br
4. Make a table of the metals and non-metals named in the article above
5. Chris the Chemist has a mass of 90 kg. Calculate the mass, in kilograms, of each of the following elements in Chris' body
   • carbon
   • hydrogen
   • oxygen
   • nitrogen
6. Calculate the mass of iron in Chris' body in
   • kilograms
   • grams
   • milligrams
   • micrograms
7. Calculate the moles of each of the following elements found in Chris' body
   • carbon
   • hydrogen
   • oxygen
   • nitrogen
8. Do you think Scientists will one day claim that lead is an element essential for human life? Explain your answer.

Astatine's Ionization Energy

Astatine is the product of the radioactive decay of some heavier elements and is the rarest naturally occurring element on Earth, only a few grams of astatine is estimated be present in the whole of the Earth's crust at any one time. All of astatine's isotopes are short-lived, with astatine-210 having the longest half-life of all its isotopes, 8.1 hours. As a result, astatine was unknown until 1940, when scientists bombarded bismuth-209 with alpha particles and produced astatine.
Even today we don't know very much about astatine, but estimates about its properties have been made based on its position in the Periodic Table, right under iodine in Group 17 (halogens). The first ionization energy of astatine has been estimated to be between 849.11 and 926.29 kJ/mol (8.8 and 9.6 eV).

The ionization energy, the energy required to remove an electron from the valence shell of an atom, is one of the most important properties that influences the chemical behaviour of an element.

In May 2013 an international team of researchers announced that they had measured the first ionization energy of astatine using laser ionization spectroscopy and found it be be 9.31751 eV (899.02 kJ/mol)

Reference:
Rothe, S. et al. Measurement of the first ionization potential of astatine by laser ionization spectroscopy. Nat. Commun. 4:1835 doi: 10.1038/ncomms2819 (2013).

Further Reading:
http://www.ausetute.com.au/pertable.html

http://www.ausetute.com.au/trendgp7.html 
http://www.ausetute.com.au/trendie.html 
http://www.ausetute.com.au/isotopes.html
http://www.ausetute.com.au/nucledec.html
http://www.ausetute.com.au/halflife.html

Suggested Study Questions:

1. Use the Periodic Table to find the following:
   • astatine's chemical symbol
   • astatine's atomic number
2.  Use the Periodic Table to find the
   • The group astatine belongs to
   • the period astatine belongs to
3. How many valence electrons does an atom of astatine have? Explain your answer.
4. Describe the trend in melting points as you go down astatine's group in the periodic table, then estimate the melting point of astatine.
5. Describe what you think astatine would look like at room temperature and justify your answer on the basis of trends in the periodic table. 
6. How does astatine-207 differ from astatine-210? 
7. Astatine-211 and 2 neutrons are produced when bismuth-209 is bombarded with alpha particles.  Write a nuclear equation for this reaction.
8. Imagine working in a laboratory. You have been given 100 μg of astatine-210 at 9 am for your experiment. Assuming the half-life of astatine is 8 hours, how much astatine-210 would you have left when you leave the lab at 5 pm?
9. The half-life of astatine-219 is about 1 minute. If you had 100 μg of astatine-219 at 9 am, how much astatine-219 would you have 5 minutes later at 9:05 am ?
10. Use the information in the article above to estimate the conversion factor between electronvolts (eV) and kJ/mol. 
11. Why do we not have an accurate measure of how much astatine is found in the Earth's crust?
12. Suggest a way that scientists can estimate the amount of astatine in existence in the Earth's crust.  

Gallium Practical Jokes

If you ask a Chemist what their favourite metal is, the chances are they will answer gallium.

Historically, gallium is significant because it was one of the elements that Dmitri  Mendeleev predicted the properties of, before the element had even been discovered! Mendeleev called the element ekkaaluminium.

Gallium has gained commercial value because gallium compounds such as gallium arsenide, GaAs, are important semiconductors in the electronics industry.

But the reason many Chemists like gallium is because of its interesting physical properties.
Gallium is a silvery metal with a metallic lustre that looks a lot like silver. Unlike silver however, gallium is not found as the element in nature. Gallium compounds occur in minute quantities in bauxite (an aluminium ore) and sphalerite (a zinc ore) and can be extracted from these ores by smelting.
The melting point of gallium is about 29.8^oC and its boiling point is about 2204^oC. This means that at temperatures between 29.8^oC and 2204^oC gallium is a liquid. Or put another way, if you have some gallium in a test tube on a hot summer's day in Sydney, or Miami, or anywhere where the temperature gets above 30^oC, what you will see is a puddle of molten metal, but if you take the molten gallium back into an air-conditioned room where the temperature is likely to be less than 25^oC, the gallium will freeze again.
And this is the basis of the disappearing spoon trick as shown in the video.

At temperatures below its melting point, gallium is a solid and can be fashioned into a spoon shape.  Being a silvery, metallic metal, it looks just like a silver teaspoon. However, if you were to stir your cup of hot tea or hot coffee with the gallium spoon, the spoon will melt because the temperature of the tea or coffee will be above the melting point of the gallium.



Further Reading
History of the Periodic Table
Periodic Table of the Elements
Metals and Non-metals
Chemical and Physical Changes
Writing Ionic Formula
Naming Ionic Compounds
Temperature Conversions
Latent Heat

Suggested Study Questions

1. Use the Periodic Table to find the following for gallium:
   • symbol
   • atomic number
   • atomic mass
2. With reference to the Periodic Table explain why Mendeleev would have named the unknown element, located where gallium is now known to be, ekkaaluminium.
3. Gallium often occurs in compounds in the +3 oxidation state, or as an ion in salts with a charge of 3+. Give the most likely formula for each of the following:
   • gallium chloride
   • gallium oxide
   • gallium hydroxide
4. Give the most likely name for each of the following:
   • GaH₃
   • Ga(NO₃)₃
   • Ga₂(CO₃)₃
5. Does the video show a chemical or a physical process? Explain your answer.
6. Sketch a temperature vs time curve to describe the melting of gallium.
7. Convert the melting point and boiling point of gallium from centigrade to kelvin.
8. Mercury has a melting point of about 234K and a boiling point of around 630K. Convert these temperatures to ^oC
9. Explain why mercury is a liquid at room temperature and pressure.
10. Could you freeze mercury by walking into an air-conditioned room like you can gallium? Explain your answer.

Periodic Table Teaching Resources

AUS-e-TUTE has downloadable resources related to the teaching and learning of Periodic Table concepts.

Visit http://ausetute.com.au/downloads.html to download:

• Interactive Periodic Table (only for Windows)
• Lesson Outlines for teaching Periodic Table concepts (designed to be used with AUS-e-TUTE's interactive Periodic Table)

Germanium

The element germanium, symbol Ge and atomic number 32, is part of a frequently studied group of elements, Group IVa of the periodic table, which could have applications for next-generation computer architecture. It is currently used in fiber-optic systems, specialized camera and microscope lenses, circuitry, and solar cells. It is a semi-conductor so it is useful in electronics.

In 1869, Dmitri Mendeleev predicted the existence of an element in Germanium's position in his periodic table and called the element eka-silicon. Mendeleev predicted the properties of this undiscovered element based on the properties of the elements around it. In 1886 Clemens Winkler found the element in the mineral argyrodite, named it after his homeland, Germany, and reported its properties. Winkler's observed properties for germanium agreed very well with Mendeleev's predictions for ekasilicon:

Property	Ekasilicon	Germanium
atomic mass	72.64	72.59
density (g/cm3)	5.5	5.35
melting point (°C)	high	947
color	gray	gray
oxide type	dioxide	dioxide
oxide density (g/cm3)	4.7	4.7
oxide activity	weak base	weak base

Germanium can form compounds similar to those formed by carbon and silicon.
Germane, GeH₄, is a compound similar in structure to methane, CH₄.
Polygermanes with general formula Ge_nH_2n+2, where n is 1 to 5, are known.

Germanium is a semiconducting solid at room temperature and pressure. It has been predicted that, under pressure, the element should exhibit superconductivity, meaning that there is no resistance to the flow of an electric current.

Scientists at the Geophysical Laboratory at Carnegie Institution for Science have recently discovered that under pressure of 66 GPa (about 650,000 atmospheres), germanium undergoes a structural change from one type of solid material to another that is metallic, meaning it conducts electricity.

Reference
Xiao-Jia Chen, Chao Zhang, Yue Meng, Rui-Qin Zhang, Hai-Qing Lin, Viktor Struzhkin, Ho-kwang Mao. β-tin→Imma→sh Phase Transitions of Germanium. Physical Review Letters, 2011; 106 (13) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.135502

Further Reading
Periodic Table
History of the Periodic Table
Metals and Non-metals
Naming Carbon Compounds

Study Questions

1. Give the name and symbol for each element present in Group IVa of the Periodic Table.
   
2. Germanium is known to form germanium dioxide. Write the formula for germanium dioxide.
3. Which of the other Group IVa elements form dioxides? Give the name and formula for each of these compounds.
4. Could germanium form any other oxides? Explain your answer.
5. Draw up a table listing the electrical conductivity of each of the Group IVa elements. Explain any trend that you see.
6. Draw a structural formula for germane.
7. Explain why it would be predicted that germanium could form "polygermanes" similar to carbon's alkanes.
8. Predict the formula for the compound(s) formed between germanium and chlorine. Explain each prediction.