The periodic table of elements

To celebrate the 150th anniversary of Mendeleev’s first publication of the periodic table, UNESCO has proclaimed 2019 as the International Year of the Periodic Table.

The School of Chemistry will contribute to this celebration by presenting the oldest and the newest periodic tables to date. The oldest (pictured below) is the earliest surviving teaching chart of the periodic table, which was found in 2014 in a storage room at the School.

Oldest existing periodic table

The newest is a periodic table that highlights element availability and vulnerability. This table (pictured below) is the brainchild of a task group chaired by David Cole-Hamilton (Past President) which was set up by the European Chemical Society (EuChemS) to design a new periodic table for use in schools and more widely.

Periodic table highlighting scarcity of elements used in everyday devices

Both periodic tables featured in the opening ceremony of the International Year of the Periodic Table in Paris on Tuesday 29 January 2019. The new periodic table will be printed onto bags for use in many EuChemS events and for delegates at an international conference in Murcia, Spain, on Monday 11 to Tuesday 12 February 2019.