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Scientists propose new way of ordering the elements

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https://theconversation.com/periodic-tab...nts-150881

EXCERPTS: The periodic table of the elements, principally created by the Russian chemist, Dmitry Mendeleev (1834-1907), celebrated its 150th anniversary last year. ... Given the table’s importance, one might be forgiven for thinking that the ordering of the elements were no longer subject to debate. However, two scientists in Moscow, Russia, have recently published a proposal for a new order.

[...] A simple search of the internet will reveal all sorts of versions of the periodic table. ... Many of these, to be sure, are simply different ways of conveying the same information but there continue to be disagreements about where some elements should be placed. The precise placement of certain elements depends on which particular properties we wish to highlight...

[...] The latest attempt to order elements in this manner was recently published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry by scientists Zahed Allahyari and Artem Oganov. Their approach, building on the earlier work of others, is to assign to each element what’s called a Mendeleev Number (MN). There are several ways to derive such numbers, but the latest study uses a combination of two fundamental quantities which can be measured directly: an element’s atomic radius and a property called electronegativity which describes how strongly an atom attracts electrons to itself.

If one orders the elements by their MN, nearest neighbours have, unsurprisingly, rather similar MNs. But of more use is to take this one step further and construct a two-dimensional grid based on the MN of the constituent elements in so called “binary compounds”. These are compounds composed of two elements, such as sodium chloride, NaCl.

What is the benefit of this approach? Importantly, it can help to predict the properties of binary compounds that haven’t been made yet. This is useful in the search for new materials that are likely be needed for both future and existing technologies. In time, no doubt, this will be extended to compounds with more than two elemental components... (MORE - details, diagrams)
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