The Compound Interest Periodic Table of Data

Today’s graphic is one that I’ve been working on over the past couple of weeks. Every chemistry classroom has a Periodic Table, but it’s often a drab affair; considering it’s one of the cornerstones of chemistry, I thought I’d attempt to produce a more dynamic looking version. The result is the above table – each element is shown within a circle that contains a variety of data pertaining to that element.

The data shown for each element is as follows:

• Melting point in degrees celsius.
• Boiling point in degrees celsius.
• First ionisation energy in kilojoules per mole.
• Atomic radius in angstroms.
• Electronegativity (on the Pauling scale).
• Density (in grams per centimetre cubed (g/L for gases)).

This data provided is provided mainly with A Level students in mind, hence the use of ˚C for temperature over Kelvin, and kilojoules per mole for ionisation energy over electron volts. I did initially include electron affinity data, but then decided that density would be of more interest. The circle segments are also colour coded, and the intensity of the colour is greater for higher values – thus allowing students to appreciate the trends in some of the different properties. Some of the figures are a little difficult to make out on a computer screen, particularly when the background colour is paler, but it’s intended to be printed at large sizes, so this is likely to be less of a problem.

The first version also includes a diagram to show the order in which electron orbitals fill. I’ve additionally produced a second version of the graphic, which simply states the group names, for more general use. Obviously, this one falls into the ‘transition metal’ trap, where Zn, Cd and Hg are designated as transition metals due to their position, despite the fact that really, they do not fulfill the criteria to be designated as such. However, since this isn’t a concept that is explored until A Level, the below table may still find use as a more general purpose table.

This is something I may eventually revisit (though perhaps not for a little while – it took a fair amount of time!). In the meantime, it’d be great to know your thoughts on both of the tables!

Download s/p/d/f block version of the table here.

Download group names version of the table here.

Both version 1 & version 2 are also available to purchase on the site poster store in A2, A1 & A0 sizes.

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.