“To rank-classify chem collections,
Note elements’ relative directions;
Sort kaleidoscopic
With chart Periodic.
(Beware, though, of trending exceptions!)”
The 2 April 2022 Twitter limerick described the concept of periodic trends, or periodic properties: qualitative information that can be inferred from the relative location of elements on the Periodic Table of Elements (PTE).
“To rank-classify chem collections, /
Note elements’ relative directions…”
The first two lines provide an overview of some ways in which the Periodic Table of Elements (PTE) provides an enormous amount of information. Collectively, sets of elements can be “rank-classif[ied]” with respect to many of their properties: for instance, it can be discerned which of a given pair of elements has the larger atomic radius (atomic size) or first ionization energy, based on their relative placement (“relative directions”) on the PTE. Similar analyses can be completed for many other periodic properties; the practice of doing so is called analyzing periodic trends.
For instance, iodine (I) is lower than bromine (Br) in the column for the halogens (Group 7A) on the PTE. Without looking up any specific data, we can predict from our knowledge of periodic trends that an atom of iodine is larger than an atom of bromine and that iodine has a lower first ionization energy (a lower energetic cost for forming a singly-positively-charged ion) than bromine.
“Sort kaleidoscopic /
With chart Periodic. /
(Beware, though, of trending exceptions!)“
One of the most amazing aspects of the PTE (the “chart Periodic”) is the way that it allows chemists to arrange a wide array of chemical information in a meaningful way: to “sort [the data] kaleidoscopic,” in this limerick’s phrasing.
However, not every trend described is a perfectly linear one, as nuances in elements’ electron configurations can lead to exceptions from the trends in question. Often, the question I ask of my General Chemistry class is not to “predict this trend” but rather to “rationalize the exception to this trend.” This can be a complex topic to encounter, meriting an accentuating “beware”!
Chemphasis 