Info Sheet 1

Dbereiner's triads
Groups of three elements
A German scientist called Johann Dbereiner put forward his law of triads in 1817.
Each of Dbereiner's triads was a group of three elements. The appearance and
reactions of the elements in a triad were similar to each other.

Alkali formers
symbol

A (atomic mass)

Li

Na

23

39

Salt formers
symbol

A (atomic mass)

Cl

35.5

Br

80

127

Atomic masses
At this time, scientists had begun to find out the relative atomic masses of the elements.
Dbereiner discovered that the relative atomic mass of the middle element in each triad
was close to the average of the relative atomic masses of the other two elements. This
gave other scientists a clue that relative atomic masses were important when arranging
the elements.

Info Sheet 2
Newlands' octaves
A table in order of relative atomic mass

John Newlands (1837 - 1898)

An English scientist called John Newlands put forward his law of octaves in 1864. He
arranged all the elements known at the time into a table in order of relative atomic
mass. When he did this, he found that each element was similar to the element eight
places further on. For example, starting at Li, Be is the second element, B is the third
and Na is the eighth element.

Part of Newlands' table

Li

Be

Na

Mg

Al

Si

Cl

Ca

Cr

Ti

Mn

Fe

Regular repeats
Newlands' table showed a repeating or periodic pattern of properties, but it had
problems. For example, he put iron in the same group as oxygen and sulphur, which are
two non-metals. As a result, his table was not accepted by other scientists.

Info Sheet 3
Mendeleev's periodic table
Another table in order of relative atomic mass

Dmitri Mendeleev (1834 - 1907)

In 1869, just five years after John Newlands put forward his law of octaves, a Russian
chemist called Dmitri Mendeleev published a periodic table. Mendeleev also arranged the
elements known at the time in order of relative atomic mass, but he did some other
things that made his table much more successful.
He realised that the physical and chemical properties of elements were related to their
atomic mass in a 'periodic' way, and arranged them so that groups of elements with
similar properties fell into vertical columns in his table.

Part of Mendeleev's periodic table

Row

Group I

Group II

Group III

Group IV

Group V

Group VI

Group VII

Li

Be

Na

Mg

Al

Si

Cl

Ca

Ti

Cr

Mn

Group VIII

Fe, Co, Ni, Cu

Gaps and predictions

Sometimes this method of arranging elements meant there were gaps in his horizontal
rows or 'periods'. But instead of seeing this as a problem, Mendeleev thought it simply
meant that the elements which belonged in the gaps had not yet been discovered.
He was also able to work out the atomic mass of the missing elements, and so predict
their properties. And when they were discovered, Mendeleev turned out to be right. For
example, he predicted the properties of an undiscovered element that should fit below
aluminium in his table. When this element, called gallium, was discovered in 1875, its

properties were found to be close to Mendeleev's predictions. Two other predicted

elements were later discovered, lending further credit to Mendeleev's table.

Info Sheet 4
The modern periodic table
Mendeleev's table needed one important modification before it became the modern
periodic table the use of atomic number to order the elements.
All atoms of the same element contain the same number of particles called
protons, and this is called the element's atomic number.
Mendeleev put the elements in order of their relative atomic mass, and this gave him
some problems. For example, iodine has a lower relative atomic mass than tellurium, so
it should come before tellurium in Mendeleev's table. In order to get iodine in the same
group as other elements with similar properties such as fluorine, chlorine and bromine,
he had to put it after tellurium, so breaking his own rules.

Henry Moseley (1887 - 1915)

Using atomic number instead of atomic mass as the organising principle was first
proposed by the British chemist Henry Moseley in 1913, and it solved anomalies like this
one. Iodine has a higher atomic number than tellurium. So, even though he didn't know
why, Mendeleev was right to place it after tellurium after all!
You need to be able to locate the positions of the:

alkali metals (group 1)

halogens (group 7)

noble gases (group 0)

transition metals

The modern periodic table