<< Chapter < Page Chapter >> Page >

The elements

The Group 16 elements have a particular name chalcogenes. [link] lists the derivation of the names of the halogens.

Derivation of the names of each of the Group 16(VI) elements.
Element Symbol Name
Oxygen O Greek oxys ( sharp , from the taste of acids) and genēs (producer)
Sulfur (sulphur) S From the Latin sulphurium
Selenium Se Greek selene meaning Moon
Tellurium Te Latin tellus meaning earth
Polonium Po Named after Poland, Latin Polonia
In Latin, the word is variously written sulpur , sulphur , and sulfur . It is an original Latin name and not a classical Greek loan, so the ph variant does not denote the Greek letter φ. Sulfur in Greek is thion , whence comes the prefix thio - to donate a sulfur derivative, e.g., a thioketone, R 2 C=S. The simplification of the Latin words p or ph to an f appears to have taken place towards the end of the classical period. The element has traditionally been spelled sulphur in the United Kingdom, India, Malaysia, South Africa, Australia, Ireland, and Canada, but sulfur in the United States. IUPAC adopted the spelling “sulfur” in 1990, as did the Royal Society of Chemistry Nomenclature Committee in 1992.

Discovery

Oxygen

The 2 nd century BC Greek writer, Philo of Byzantium, observed that inverting a jar over a burning candle and surrounding the jar’s neck with water resulted in some water rising into the neck. He incorrectly ascribed this to the idea that part of the air in the vessel were converted into the element fire and thus were able to escape through pores in the glass. Much later Leonardo da Vinci ( [link] ) suggested that this effect was actually due to a portion of air being consumed during combustion.

Italian painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (1452 - 1519).

By the late 17 th century, Robert Boyle ( [link] ) showed that air is necessary for combustion. His work was expanded by English chemist John Mayow ( [link] ) by showing that fire requires only a part of air that he called spiritus nitroaereus or just nitroaereus .

British natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, and inventor Robert Boyle (1627 - 1691).
English chemist, physician, and physiologist John Mayow FRS (1641–1679).

The reactive nature of nitroaereus was implied by Mayow from his observation that antimony (Sb) increased in weight when heated in air. He also suggested that the lungs separate nitroaereus from air and pass it into the blood and that animal heat and muscle movement result from the reaction of nitroaereus with certain substances in the body; both concepts that were proven to be correct.

Robert Hooke ( [link] ), Ole Borch ( [link] ), Mikhail Lomonosov (id1168366758158), and Pierre Bayen ( [link] ) all produced oxygen in experiments in the 17 th and the 18 th century but none of them recognized it as an element, probably since the prevalence at that time of the phlogiston, and their attempts to fit their experimental observations to that theory.

Portrait of English natural philosopher, architect Robert Hooke FRS (1635 - 1703).

Get Jobilize Job Search Mobile App in your pocket Now!

Get it on Google Play Download on the App Store Now




Source:  OpenStax, Chemistry of the main group elements. OpenStax CNX. Aug 20, 2010 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col11124/1.25
Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google Inc.

Notification Switch

Would you like to follow the 'Chemistry of the main group elements' conversation and receive update notifications?

Ask