CELEBRATIONS THROUGHOUT YEAR 2019 AIMING TO BOOST PUBLIC AWARENESS OF CHEMISTRY

The General Assembly of the United Nations has designated 2019 as the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements. The year will coincide with the 150th anniversary of the Table’s creation by Dmitry Mendeleev. It will also mark a number of other milestones in the history of chemistry, including the discovery of phosphorus 350 years ago, Antoine Lavoisier’s categorization of 33 elements in 1789 and the formulation of the “Law of the Triads” by Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner 190 years ago.

The decision was announced by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), whose proposal to celebrate the Periodic Table in 2019 coincides with its centenary, and was supported by several organizations including the European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences (EuCheMS). IUPAC says the year will raise global awareness of chemistry and show how the periodic table is ‘central to linking cultural, economic and political aspects of the global society through a common language’.

The Periodic Table has been considered one of the most significant achievements in modern Science, which relates several areas of knowledge, such as Astronomy, Chemistry, Physics, Biology and other Natural Sciences.

For the international scientific community, it is a very useful and unique tool, allowing scientists to predict the properties of matter on Earth and the Universe.

The Periodic Table was published for the first time in the year 1869, allowing illustrate periodic trends in the properties of the elements then known, by ordering them based on their chemical properties.

After its publication Mendeleev made a forecast of the properties of some unknown chemical elements until then and left predicted that places would occupy the Periodic Table.

Until now, all the chemical elements of atomic number from 1 (Hydrogen) to 118 (Hogenson) have been discovered; and the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) confirmed the elements 113, 115, 117 and 118 in 2015.

The International Year of the Periodic Table also coincides with the centenary of the IUPAC.

References:

1. ACS (2019). “2019 is the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements (IYPT 2019)” American Chemical Society (ACS) Newsletter, available at: www.acs.org.
2. IUPAC Secretariat (2018). The United Nations Proclaims the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements”. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) Newsletter, available at: www.iupac.org. June 1, 2018.
3. Stoye, E. (2019). “2019 to be the international year of the periodic table”. Chemistry Word Newsletter, available at: www.chemistryworld.com.
4. UNESCO (2018). “The International Year of the Periodic Table. A Common Language for Science” United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Newsletter, available at: www.unesco.org. March 22, 2018

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