New Elements as Potential Refractories

Abstract

EXAMINATION of a Lothar–Meyer plot with reference to the synthesis of elements up to 102, and the possibility of producing even higher elements, lead to some rather interesting speculations. On observation of the Lothar–Meyer plot of melting points (Fig. 1) several different types of characteristic periodic variations become apparent. Within Groups IA (lithium to cæsium), IB (zinc to mercury), IIA (beryllium to barium), IIIA (boron to thallium), IVA (carbon to lead) and IVB (titanium to hafnium) the melting points tend to decrease with increasing atomic number. Within groups VB (vanadium to tantalum), VIA (oxygen to polonium), VIB (chromium to tungsten), VIIA (fluorine to astatine), VIIB (manganese to rhenium), VIIIA (helium to radon) and VIIIB (iron to osmium) the melting points tend to increase with increasing atomic number. Groups IIIB (scandium to lanthanum), VA (nitrogen to bismuth) and VIIIB (cobalt to iridium and nickel to platinum) exhibit an intermediate behaviour in which the melting points first increase and then decrease with increasing atomic number; and group IB (copper to gold) exhibits a slight minimum.