The periodic table of the elements

The periodic table is an arrangment of the chemical elements ordered by atomic number so that periodic properties of the elements (chemical periodicity) are made clear.

Explore the chemical elements through this periodic table

Phosphorus Molybdenum Technetium Lawrencium Rutherfordium Seaborgium Meitnerium Darmstadtium Roentgenium Copernicium Livermorium Tennessine Praseodymium Promethium Gadolinium Dysprosium Protactinium Californium Einsteinium Mendelevium

The standard form of the periodic table shown here includes periods (shown horizontally) and groups (shown vertically). The properties of elements in groups are similar in some respects to each other.

There is no one single or best structure for the periodic table but by whatever consensus there is, the form used here is very useful and the most common. The periodic table is a masterpiece of organised chemical information and the evolution of chemistry's periodic table into the current form is an astonishing achievement.

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) confirmed the names of elements 113, 115, 117, and 118 as:

This followed a 5-month period of public review after which the names earlier proposed by the discoverers were approved by IUPAC.

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You can buy this periodic table poster and more at the WebElements periodic table shop.

On 1 May 2014 a paper published in Phys. Rev. Lett by J. Khuyagbaatar and others states the superheavy element with atomic number Z = 117 (ununseptium) was produced as an evaporation residue in the 48 Ca and 249 Bk fusion reaction at the gas-filled recoil separator TASCA at GSI Darmstadt, Germany. The radioactive decay of evaporation residues and their α-decay products was studied using a detection setup that allows measurement of decays of single atomic nuclei with very short half-lives. Two decay chains comprising seven α-decays and a spontaneous fission each were identified and assigned to the isotope 294 Uus (element 117) and its decay products.

Images of various periodic tables

Click on the images below to see images of the periodic table in a variety of styles.