I really like the Periodic Table of the Elements. In my introductory courses I never use “Periodic Table of the Elements,” but instead “Table of the Elements” so that I can have the students work their way up to where “Periodic” comes from and how important the discovery was. This book helps one fill in that central portion of the table that is important for the formation of good insulators, semiconductors, metals, and superconductors. From the introduction we see that the compounds of interest contain an element between Ti and Cu in the 3d series, between Zr and Ag in the 4d series, or between Hf and Au in the 5d series. The buildup continues the “Bohr atom” shell model.
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