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Dobereiner’s Triads

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Topics

  • Introduction
  • Limitations

Introduction:

In 1817, Johann Wolfgang Dobereiner, a German chemist, tried to arrange the elements with similar properties into groups. He identified some groups having three elements each. So he called these groups ‘triads’.  When the three elements in a triad were written in the order of increasing atomic masses, the atomic mass of the middle element was roughly the average of the atomic masses of the other two elements.

Sr. No. Triad Element-1 (Actual Atomic Mass) (a) Element-2 (Mean=a+c2) Element-2 (Actual Atomic Mass) Element-3 (Actual Atomic Mass) (c)
1 Li, Na, K Lithium (Li) - 6.9 Sodium: (6.9 + 39.1) / 2 = 23.0 Na - 23.0 Potassium (K) - 39.1
2 Ca, Sr, Ba Calcium (Ca) - 40.1 Strontium: (40.1 + 137.3) / 2 = 88.7 Sr - 87.6 Barium (Ba) - 137.3
3 Cl, Br, I Chlorine (Cl) - 35.5 Bromine: (35.5 + 126.9) / 2 = 81.2 Br - 79.9 Iodine (I) - 126.9

 

Limitations:

1. All known elements could not be classified into groups of triads on the basis of their properties.

2. Dobereiner could identify only three triads from the elements known at that time. Hence, this classification system into triads was not found to be helpful.

3. These were the only triads recognised from the elements known at that time.

  • Li, Na, K
  • Ca, Sr, Ba
  • Cl, Br, I
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