2008

SUnknownCobalt version 1 - Periodic Table of Videos

Wed, Jun 25, 2008

Here is a quick look at the twenty-seventh element cobalt. It is available in various forms such as sponge or pellets. An important use is as part of an alloy to make small but powerful magnets. These magnets find there way into audio speaker and other electronic devices.

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SUnknownAntimony - Periodic Table of Videos

Sun, Jul 13, 2008

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SUnknownCadmium - Periodic Table of Videos

Sun, Jul 13, 2008

Peter displays a couple bars of of the grayish, toxic metal cadmium and notes that it is used in batteries (as of 2008 when the video was produced). The Professor describes the various applications as a dye since the sulfide is a bright orange.

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SUnknownThulium - Periodic Table of Videos

Sun, Jul 13, 2008

Thulium was challenging to isolate from it's fellow lanthanides requiring thousands of crystallizations for the first successful effort.

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SUnknownTungsten - Periodic Table of Videos

Mon, Jul 14, 2008

Tungsten is one of the hardest, heaviest and highest melting metals. As a fine wire it is used as the filament in incandescent light bulbs. Iodine is added to produce quartz halogen lamps that were used for a time for automobile headlights. Tungesten carbide is especially hard and used for the ball in ball point pens. Peter has a couple samples including a single crystal of tungsten.

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SUnknownGadolinium - Periodic Table of Videos

Wed, Jul 16, 2008

Gadolinium is a rare earth element in the middle of the Lanthanide of f-orbital series. It's claim to fame is its use a a contrast agent for medical magnetic resonance imaging. Unfortunatly a sample is not shown nor any chemical reactions demonstrated.

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SUnknownSelenium - Periodic Table of Videos

Wed, Jul 16, 2008

Selenium has similar chemistry to sulfur but where organic sulfur compounds are particularly pungent selenium compounds are even worse. Combined with sulfur, selenium is used as a bactericide in shampoo to treat dandruff. Some people eat selenium as a dietary supplement. Peter displays a sample of black selenium pellets.

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SUnknownXenon - Periodic Table of Videos

Sun, Aug 10, 2008

Xenon is produced as a by-product of the purification of oxygen and nitrogen from air. In a landmark reaction in 1962 Neil Bartlett produced xenon platinum hexafluoride. Prior to his experiment the noble (inert) gases which include Xenon were though to be totally nonreactive.

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SUnknownBismuth - Periodic Table of Videos

Tue, Aug 12, 2008

Peter and Debbie both have samples of bismuth. Debbie's is crystalline which is quite popular with collectors. Bismuth is used in conjunction with other metals as a catalyst but the Professor thinks it merits more research since it is non-toxic. Bismuth was once thought to be the densest non radioactive metal but Bismuth 209 was found to be an alpha emitter with a half life longer than the age of the universe.

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SUnknownLead - Periodic Table of Videos

Mon, Sep 15, 2008

Lead is a soft, heavy, poisonous metal. It is often used for radiation shielding. In World War Two it was used as a submarine camouflage because with simple in the field chemical reactions it can be changed from black lead sulfide to white lead oxide or sulfate and back. Tetraethyllead was used as an antiknock additive in gasoline until the toxic and environmental impact became public.

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SUnknownBeryllium - Periodic Table of Videos

Wed, Dec 31, 2008

Beryllium is a highly toxic metal so it is not of great practical value and is not researched a great deal. But since it has a low molecular weight it is useful as a window in x-ray spectrometers because it doesn't absorb the X-rays used to detect the heavier elements.

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SUnknownRuthenium - Periodic Table of Videos

Sun, May 10, 2009

Ruthenium is an expensive metal that if often used as a catalyst particularly for olefin metathesis.

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SUnknownAmalgams - Periodic Table of Videos

Tue, Jun 09, 2009

Debbie demonstrates the preparation of sodium amalgam. Although it's just a matter of dissolving the sodium in mercury the preparation process and apparatus needed are surprisingly involved. The Professor discusses the pros and cons of amalgam dental fillings.

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SUnknownCaesium or Cesium - Periodic Table of Videos

Sun, Aug 09, 2009

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SUnknownChlorine - Periodic Table of Videos

Tue, Nov 03, 2009

Chlorine is a toxic, highly reactive, yellow green gas. It is abundant on the earth in the form of chloride salts.

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SUnknownSilver - Periodic Table of Videos

Wed, Nov 25, 2009

Professor Poliakoff discusses the practical uses of silver in photography and anti-bacterial applications in addition to its physical properties of heat and electric conductivity. Meanwhile Peter grows silver crystal in a time lapse video and creates flash powder with Neil.

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SUnknownBromine - Periodic Table of Videos

Mon, Nov 30, 2009

Bromine is a deep reddish brown liquid. At room temperature its red vapor is seen above the sample. Bromine is highly reactive and is shown here reacting with aluminum in a reaction exothermic enough to ignite the bromine vapor. Bromine is unusual in that two isotopes occur naturally in roughly equal percentages.

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SUnknownScandium - Periodic Table of Videos

Tue, Apr 20, 2010

Scandium is one of the elements discovered following Dmitri Mendeleev's proposal of the periodic table. As one of the first discovered of his predicted elements it cemented his theory in the scientific community. Scandium's low density and ability to absorb hydrogen has generated interest in it for storing hydrogen automotive fuel.

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SUnknownCopper - Periodic Table of Videos

Wed, Nov 10, 2010

The professor explains the common uses of copper both biological and industrial. Debbie performs reactions to demonstrate some of the colors of copper slats.

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SUnknownDifficult Elements - Periodic Table of Videos

Tue, May 24, 2011

Max Whitby makes period tables that contain samples of the elements. But some are not easy to come by. And once you have a sample, displaying it is another challenge,

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SUnknownBarium - Periodic Table of Videos

Wed, Jun 29, 2011

Barium has some very helpful, unique uses. In medicine it is used to x-ray the soft tissue of the digestive system. In spectroscopy the water insoluble fluoride is used as a, infrared cell for aqueous solutions. And in electronics it is of interested as a component in high temperature super conductors.

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SUnknownStephen Church and Manganese Pentacarbonyl - Periodic Table of Videos

Sun, Aug 28, 2011

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SUnknownRhenium - Periodic Table of Videos

Mon, Mar 05, 2012

Rhenium is a rare, dense metal. The professor explains why perrhenate salts are white in contrast to the deep purple permanganate salts. He also shares a sample of a single crystal turbine blade that contains rhenium and talks about its construction.

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SUnknownZirconium - Periodic Table of Videos

Tue, Mar 13, 2012

Zirconium is rather light weight considering it's a second row transition metal. It is used as cladding for nuclear fuel rods but tends to be contaminated with hafnium which is difficult to separate and interferes in nuclear reactions. Zirconium also reacts with steam which is a problem if a nuclear reactor get too hot.

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SUnknownBoron Tribromide - Periodic Table of Videos

Sat, Mar 17, 2012

Boron tribromide is a classic example of Lewis acid with three bound bromine atoms and an empty orbital which is perfect for bonding with a Lewis base such as ammonia that has two unbound electrons. A fuming samples is show as it reacts with water in the air to generate hydrogen bromide.

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SUnknownStrange Metal Rings - Viewer Questions

Tue, Mar 27, 2012

In response to a viewer question members of the Nottingham Univeristy Chemistry department suggest metals that might be good to use for a ring. Suggestions range from to the traditional gold and platinum to the liquid elements mercury and gallium.

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SUnknownAmericium - Periodic Table of Videos

Wed, Aug 29, 2012

Americium was discovered in the Manhatten project but kept secret until the news leaked out a year later. it has a commercial use in microscopic quantities as a radiation source in smoke detectors. It is also under consideration as a power source for space probes now that Uranium 238 is out of production.

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SUnknownNeptunium - Periodic Table of Videos

Wed, Nov 28, 2012

Neptunium is an undesirable contaminate in the preparation of nuclear fuel. It is separated from uranium by controlling it's oxidation sate.

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SUnknownRadon - Periodic Table of Videos

Sun, Mar 24, 2013

Radon was traditionally obtained by the radioactive decay of radium and was the subject of a fierce competition between Ernest Rutherford and William Ramsay to be the first to isolate it.

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SUnknownPlatinum - Periodic Table of Videos

Tue, Jun 25, 2013

The professor visits a platinum processing factory where he shows that various forms platinum is fabricated into and describes their uses.

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SUnknownXenon Bonds - Periodic Table of Videos

Thu, Sep 26, 2013

The professor discusses chemists' surprise at the compounds successfully created from Xenon.

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SUnknownRhodium - Periodic Table of Videos

Thu, Oct 03, 2013

Rhodium is a rare and expensive noble metal. It is used primarily in the automotive industry to to catalyze the decomposition of nitrogen oxides in exhaust fumes. Alloyed with platinum in the form of wire it is used in thermocouples and pacemaker wires.

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SUnknownWade's Rules - Periodic Table of Videos

Wed, Apr 09, 2014

The Professor shares some of his snooping into the early career of Kenneth Wade, who developed a theory to explain the shapes of boron compounds, as a tribute to the man who died shortly before the making of this video. Debbie explains the scope of Wade's rules without getting deep into the details.

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SUnknownAluminium (or Aluminum) - Periodic Table of Videos

Sat, May 10, 2014

Professor Poliakoff finds Aluminum very useful in his labs research. As the oxide is helpful as a catalyst for various organic reactions. In crystal form the oxide is synthetic sapphire and makes very strong tubing for photo-chemical reactions. And finally the bulk metal makes effective heating block. The professor shows the results of a lab mishap and aluminum reacting with copper chloride.

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SUnknownNiobium - Periodic Table of Videos

Mon, Jun 09, 2014

Niobium was part of the columbium-wolfram naming controversy. On a more practical level is is an effective steel strengthening additive in very small quantities.

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SUnknownProtactinium - Periodic Table of Videos

Sat, Sep 13, 2014

Protactinium is a scarce product of the radioactive decay of uranium itself decaying to actinium. That makes it useful of geological data but little else. The professor shares the details of it's prediction by Mendeleev and discovery following his death.

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SUnknownSeaborgium Chemistry - Periodic Table of Videos

Wed, Oct 22, 2014

A team of researchers succeeded in producing seaborgium hexacarbonyl by colliding curium and neon atoms to produce seaborgium then rapidly reacting it with carbon monoxide before radioactive decay destroyed all the seaborgium.

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SUnknownManganese - Periodic Table of Videos

Sun, Mar 08, 2015

Manganese is an interesting transition metal because it has five d electrons that it can share to take on several different oxidation states both positive and negative. is best known for its compound potassium permanganate. Debbie demonstrates how to convert the deep purple permanganate into bight green manganate and back again.

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SUnknownVanadium

Mon, May 04, 2015

Vanadium is a flammable, toxic transition metal shown here as wire and powder. The element has several oxidation states which Daren demonstrates by shaking a solution of ammonium metavanadate with zinc amalgam. The solution changes color as the vanadium is reduced from oxidation state V to IV to III and finally II.

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SUnknownNaK

Sat, Jul 18, 2015

NaK is an alloy of sodium and potassium that is liquid at room temperature. It was of interest as a coolant for nuclear reactors but there was concern it would dissolve metal pipes so it was tested by circulating it in pipes in a laboratory environment. A group at the Unversity of Nottingham built a similar rig from glass and applied on electric current to display a liquid metal fountain.

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SUnknownHolmium - Periodic Table of Videos

Thu, Aug 20, 2015

While sharing the very few practical applications of holmium, the professors delve into some details about spectroscopy and the Oddo Harkins element abundance rule.

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SUnknownNihonium - Periodic Table of Videos

Wed, Dec 14, 2016

Nihonium is the first transuranic element first synthesized in Japan. The Professor explains how the synthesis of super heavy elements is verified by tracking its radioactive decay products.

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SUnknownOganesson - Periodic Table of Videos

Wed, Dec 14, 2016

Named after Yuri Oganessian, a pioneer is the synthesis of super heavy elements, Oganesson is one of the very few elements named after a living scientist. It is also very likely the last noble gas.

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SUnknownTennessine - Periodic Table of Videos

Wed, Dec 14, 2016

Tennessine, synthetic element 177, falls at the bottom of the halogens on the periodic table. Since the halogens are pretty predictable the Professor speculates on the behavior of this element were it possible to obtain a lump of it.

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SUnknownThe Smelliest Element - Livermorium - Periodic Table of Videos

Tue, Jan 24, 2017

Livermorium was created by colliding Calcium 48 atoms with Curium atoms. Four isotopes have so far (2017) be created. It is named after the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory where it was first synthesized and the city of Livermore which thrilled the residents.

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SUnknownBrady's Reagent - Periodic Table of Videos

Thu, Feb 09, 2017

2-4-dinitrophenylhydrazine, Brady's Reagent, was commonly used in the early days of organic chemistry. It easily produced a solid derivative of liquid aldehyde and ketone compounds, enabling the measurement of a melting point to definitively identify the compound.

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SUnknownThe Element Creator

Tue, Apr 11, 2017

The professor visits the Joint Insittute for Nuclear Research in Dubna, Russia to meet with Yrui Oganessian who leads the team that created six super heavy elements including the record holder, element 118, oganesson 293. Increadibly, their equipment was assembled largely from general purpose laboratory equipment.

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SUnknownFuture Elements - Periodic Table of Videos

Sun, May 14, 2017

Martyn visits Dubna Russia to see the construction on the new Superheavy Element Factory. Here Yuri Oganessian and his team are gearing up to synthesize the new elements 119 and 120. The Professor explains the challenges with producing these elements.

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SUnknownAstatine - Periodic Table of Videos

Wed, May 31, 2017

Astatine is such a trace element in the Earth's crust that it was synthesized, by bombarding Bismuth with alpha particles, before it was discovered. It falls at the bottom of the halogens in the periodic table but there is still (2017) some question whether hydrogen astitide will behave more like an acid or a hydride.

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SUnknownActinium - Periodic Table of Videos

Sun, Jun 25, 2017

Actinium is one of the few elements that undergoes radioactive decay rapidly enough to ionize the air around it creating the mythic radioactive glow, in actinium's case, a bluish glow.

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