3.0 Introduction

The Periodic Table is arguably the most important concept in chemistry, both in principle and in practice. It is the everyday support for students, it suggests new avenues of research to professionals, and it provides a succinct organization of the whole of chemistry. It is a remarkable demonstration of the fact that chemical elements are not a random cluster of entities but instead display trends and lie together in families. An awareness of the Periodic Table is essential to anyone who wishes to disentangle the world and see how it is built up from the fundamental building blocks of chemistry, the chemical elements.

In this Unit, we will study the historical development of the Periodic Table as it stands today and the Modern Periodic Law. We will also learn how the periodic classification follows as a logical consequence of the electronic configuration of atoms. Finally, we shall examine some of the periodic trends in the physical and chemical properties of the elements.