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2-E

Dmitri Mendeleev
What is a mark of a great scientist? Good scientists
discover new information and make sense of it, linking
it to other data. They may go further by explaining this
linked data, which, maybe not immediately, other

scientists accept as a correct explanation. However, the

outstanding scientist goes further in predicting
consequences of his ideas, which can be tested. This
boldness identifies the great scientist if the predictions
are later found to be accurate. One such person was
Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev. Incidentally,
although he is often regarded as the father of the
Periodic Table, Mendeleev himself called his table, or
matrix, the Periodic System.
Formulator of the Periodic Table
Elements had been
discovered (we now know
of over 100) and second
some of the information
about the 60 was wrong. It was if Mendeleev was doing
a jigsaw with one third of the pieces missing, and other
pieces bent!
Mendeleev had written the properties of elements on
pieces of card and tradition has it that after organizing
the cards while playing patience he suddenly realized
that by arranging the element cards in order of
increasing atomic weight that certain types of element
regularly occurred. For example a very reactive light
metal, then a less reactive light metal directly followed
a reactive non-metal. The image of a stamp collectors
miniature sheet shows a stamp commemorating the
hundredth anniversary of the Periodic Table
superimposed on some of Mendeleevs original jottings.
Shortly after, his ideas were presented to the Russian
Physic-chemical Society. They were read by Professor
Menschutkin because Mendeleev was ill. His ideas were
then published in the main German chemistry

periodical of the time, Zeitschrift fr Chemise.

The worlds first view of Mendeleevs Periodic

Table an extract from Zeitschrift fr Chemie,
1869. Click here for a translation
What were the special features of Mendeleev's
Periodic Table?
Why Mendeleev is considered the father of the
Periodic Table whilst others, such as Newlands, Meyer
and De Chantcourtois are considered also-rans?
First he put elements into their correct places in the
table. In some cases, the relative atomic mass had
been wrongly calculated by others. By correcting the
relative atomic mass he put the element in the correct
place.
At the time, relative atomic masses (then called atomic
weights) were laboriously determined using the formula
atomic weight = equivalent weight x valency
The combining (or equivalent) weights (see Problems
with relative atomic masses) were generally
accurate but sometimes an element was given the

wrong valency. Thus beryllium, combining weight 4.6,

was given the valency 3 because it was chemically
similar to aluminium. This gave an atomic weight of
13.8, placing it between carbon and nitrogen where
there was no space. Mendeleev said the valency was 2;
the problem was solved - it fitted into the space
between lithium and boron.
Secondly, Mendeleev sometimes decided that atomic
weights must be wrong because the elements simply
appeared in the wrong place. For example, he placed
tellurium before iodine although its atomic weight is
greater simply because iodines properties are so
similar to those of fluorine, chlorine and bromine and
tellurium is to those of oxygen, sulfur and selenium
rather than the other way round. We now know that it
is atomic number, not relative atomic mass that
governs an elements position in the Periodic Table but
in most cases, the two result in the same order.
Correct predictions
The greatness of Mendeleev was that not only did he
leave spaces for elements that were not yet discovered
but he predicted properties of five of these elements
and their compounds. How foolish he would have
seemed if these predictions had been incorrect but
fortunately for him three of these missing elements
were discovered by others within 15 years (ie within his
lifetime). The first of these Mendeleev had called ekaaluminium because it was the one after aluminium (eke
= 1 in Sanskrit) and was identified in Paris (1875) by
Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran who named it gallium
after the Latin name for France. Mendeleev was
ecstatic when he heard of its properties, which nearly

matched his eka-aluminium. However, de

Boisbaudran's value for gallium's density (4.9 g/cm3)
differed from Mendeleev's prediction. Mendeleev told
the Frenchman, who re-measured the density to find
Mendeleev was right! It is interesting to speculate
whether de Boisbaudran was pleased or irritated by
this. The table compares Mendeleev's predictions with
de Boisbaudran's discovery.
Eka-aluminium Gallium (Ga)
(Ea)
Atomic weight

About 68

69.72

Density of solid 6.0 g/cm3

5.9 g/cm3

Melting point

low

29.78oC

Valency

Method of
discovery

Probably from its Spectroscopic ally

spectrum

Oxide

Formula Ea2O3,
Formula Ga2O3,
density 5.5 g/cm3. density 5.88
Soluble in both
g/cm3. Soluble in
acids and alkalis. both acids and
alkalis.

Within the next ten years, Swede Lars Nilsson (1879)

identified scandium, predicted by Mendeleev as ekeboron and German Clemens Winkler (1886) discovered
germanium, which he realized, was Mendeleev's ekasilicon. These discoveries established the acceptance of
the Russian's table, although two other elements whose
properties were predicted were not discovered for 50

years.
One thing that Mendeleev did not predict was the
discovery of a completely new Group of elements, the
noble gases, by the Scot William Ramsay and coworkers during the last decade of the 19th century (see
The discovery of new elements). Mendeleev was at first
dismayed by this but before he died in 1907 realised
that Ramsay's discoveries were further proof of the
Periodic Table, not a contradiction. Ramsay was
awarded a Nobel Prize for discovering five elements.
Mendeleev never received that honor However, an
element, atomic number 101, has been named after
Mendeleev, an even rarer distinction. This is surely
deserved by the original formulator of the Periodic
Table.
Questions
Q 1.
Mendeleev listed elements in order of increasing
atomic weight (now called relative atomic mass).
(a) What property is used today for the order of
the elements?
(b) Which particle within the atom is responsible
for this property?
Q 2.
Give one similarity and one difference between
the tables produced by Newlands and Mendeleev.
Q3
Give two examples of a reactive non-metal
followed by a reactive light metal then a less reactive
light metal'.
Q4.

Beryllium is chemically similar to aluminum.

(a) Suggest the appearance of beryllium oxide.

(b) What would be the formula of this oxide if it

was similar to aluminum oxide?
(c) What is the correct formula?
Q 5.
(a) What feature is common to the names of the
three elements discovered within Mendeleevs
lifetime?
(b) Mendeleev has an element named after him.
Give the other elements named after scientists.
Q 6.

Reproduced courtesy of Gordon Woods

The photograph shows a giant wall Periodic
Table erected in St Petersburg, Russia, in 1934.
(a) Why was that year chosen for this giant
memorial table
(b) Elements in black were discovered between
Mendeleev's death and 1934.
(i) How many are there?
(ii) Where are most of these elements placed in
most Periodic Tables?
(c) There are still some blanks. Give the names

and symbols of the alkali metal and halogen still to

be discovered.
(d) What are the normal symbols for the
elements J and Jr?
(e) At the bottom of the columns are general
formulae for the oxides and hydrides of elements in
that column. Look carefully and state the difference
between them and the normal way of writing their
formulae.