Periodic Table — Chemistry Short Notes

VHTC
Hand Written Notes
Published in
4 min readJan 28, 2024

The periodic table is one of the most important tools in chemistry. It’s a chart that organizes all the known chemical elements in a way that reveals their relationships and properties.

Here are the key things to know about the periodic table for your chemistry short notes:

Periodic Table — Organization

  1. Elements are arranged in rows (periods) and columns (groups).
  2. Elements are ordered by atomic number, which is the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom.
  3. Horizontal rows are called periods. There are 7 periods in the current periodic table.
  4. Vertical columns are called groups. There are 18 groups in the periodic table.

Some Basic Concepts of Chemistry — Short Notes

Periodic Table — Key Concept

Atomic number: The number of protons in an atom’s nucleus, determining its identity as an element and its place in the table.

Electron configuration: The arrangement of electrons in an atom’s orbitals, influencing its chemical behavior.

Periodic trends: Properties like atomic size, ionization energy, electronegativity, and metallic character exhibit predictable patterns across the table.

Periodic Table — Groups

1. Group members share similar properties due to having the same number of valence electrons (outermost electrons involved in bonding).

2. Some important groups include:

Group 1 (Alkali metals): highly reactive metals, readily forming ionic bonds.

Group 17 (Halogens): non-metals forming diatomic molecules and ionic bonds.

Group 18 (Noble gases): unreactive monatomic gases with filled valence orbitals.

Periodic Table — Periods

1. As you move left to right across a period, atomic number and effective nuclear charge increase, leading to:

  1. Decreasing atomic size.
  2. Increasing ionization energy.
  3. Increasing electronegativity.
  4. Transition from metals to non-metals.

2. Moving down a group, atomic size and metallic character generally increase.

Atomic Structure — Chemistry Short Notes

Periodic Table — Trends

  1. As you move down a group, the elements become more metallic. This means they are more likely to lose electrons and form positive ions.
  2. As you move across a period, the elements become more nonmetallic. This means they are more likely to gain electrons and form negative ions.
  3. Elements in the same group have similar chemical properties.

Periodic Table — Regions

  1. Metals: Located on the left side of the table and most of the center. They are malleable, ductile, and good conductors of heat and electricity.
  2. Nonmetals: Located on the right side of the table. They are brittle, poor conductors of heat and electricity, and tend to gain electrons in chemical reactions.
  3. Metalloids: Located along the “staircase” line between metals and nonmetals. They have properties of both metals and nonmetals.
  4. Noble gases: Located in the far right column. They are unreactive gases because their outer electron shells are full.

Originally published at https://www.vhtc.org.

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