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This book provides an overview of the origins and evolution of the periodic system from its prehistory to the latest synthetic elements and possible future additions. The periodic system of the elements first emerged as a comprehensive classificatory and predictive tool for chemistry during the 1860s. Its subsequent embodiment in various versions has made it one of the most recognizable icons of science.
Based primarily on a symposium titled "150 Years of the Periodic Table" and held at the August 2019 national meeting of the American Chemical Society, this book describes the origins of the periodic law, developments that led to its acceptance, chemical families that the system struggled to accommodate, extension of the periodic system to include synthetic elements, and various cultural aspects of the system that were celebrated during the International Year of the Periodic Table.
List of contents
Chapter 1 - Introduction: Overview and Scope.- Chapter 2 - Trouble with triads.- Chapter 3 - Sir John F.W. Herschel and the concept of periodicity.- Chapter 4 - Vis tellurique of Alexandre-E mile Be guyer de Chancourtois.- Chapter 5 - Periodicity in Britain: The periodic tables of Odling and Newlands.- Chapter 6 - Gustavus Detlef Hinrichs and his Chart of the Elements.- Chapter 7 - Lothar Meyer's path to periodicity.- Chapter 8 - Mendeleev and his periodic system.- Chapter 9 - Discovery of the elements predicted by Dmitri Mendeleev's table: Scandium, gallium, and germanium.- Chapter 10 - Rare Earth Elements.- Chapter 11 - History (and pre-history) of the discovery and chemistry of the noble gases.- Chapter 12 - Hydrogen, helium, and metals: When astronomy met the periodic table.- Chapter 13 - Hydrogen to oganesson: A philatelic celebration of the periodic table.- Chapter 14 - Impact of 20th century physics on the periodic table and questions still outstanding in the 21st century.- Chapter 15 - Uses of the Periodic System after Radioactivity and the Discovery of the Neutron: the contrasting views of Lise Meitner and Ida Noddack.- Chapter 16- Mary Elvira Weeks and The Discovery of the Elements.- Chapter 17 - From neptunium to mendelevium: element discovery and the birth of the atomic age.- Chapter 18 - Transactinide elements: How the 7th row of the periodic table was discovered.- Chapter 19 - Periodic table after period 7.
About the author
Carmen J. Giunta is Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York. He received his B.S. degree in chemistry from the University of Scranton and an A.M. in physics and Ph.D. in chemical physics from Harvard University. He has been active in the ACS Division of the History of Chemistry since the late 1990s. He is the editor of the Bulletin for the History of Chemistry.
Vera V. Mainz is retired from her position as Director of the NMR Laboratory at the School of Chemical Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She received her B.S. degrees in chemistry and mathematics from Kansas Newman University and her Ph.D. degree from the University of California at Berkeley working with Prof. Richard A. Andersen. She has been Secretary/Treasurer of the ACS Division of the History of Chemistry since 1995.
Gregory S. Girolami is the William H. and Janet G. Lycan Professor and former Head of the Chemistry Departmentat the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After receiving his B.S. degrees in chemistry and physics from the University of Texas at Austin and his Ph.D. degree from the University of California at Berkeley, he was a NATO postdoctoral fellow with Nobel laureate Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson. His research interests are primarily in the synthesis, properties, and reactivity of new inorganic, organometallic, and solid-state species.
