thaumaturgy
Well-Known Member
Think of the Periodic Table as a Catalogue.
Once it was established how to arrange the elements (initially I believe Mendeleev used mass, but later it was arranged based on atomic number, the number of protons).
Once this fundamental aspect was established it established how elements were "identified" (number of protons in the nucleus of the neutral atom), it established where all the holes were within the number that were known to exist.
Right now we are up to 92 naturally occuring elements. That means that of the 92 known "naturally occuring ones" (in reality Technetium is known largely from being synthesized but owing to the instability of its isotopes it is likely it exists or existed naturally somewhere), other than that no one is probably going to find a new element within that set (it would mean you would have to have elements with fractional protons in their nucleus).
The "new ones" will come from numbers higher than 92. There is some theoretical work indicating an "island of stability" at much higher atomic numbers which might mean we could find some more "naturally occuring" elements above 92. But so far all those we see above 92 are from synthetic routes.
BUT, and perhaps a nuclear physics person can correct me on this, it could be that we find some naturally occuring Neptunium or Plutonium, etc somewhere. The only thing that would change is the arbitrary designation of what is "naturally occuring".
The Periodic Table really isn't such a "work in progress" anymore. It's more like a giant library of elements, the usual suspects are pretty well established. Now we are looking at adding to it, not necessarily fundamentally altering it.
In a sense, now that we have the catalogue we can make some predictions about how to handle some of these materials. It was useful in learning the nature of the transuranics shortly after scientists made the first measurable quantities. They fit in a codified system. Providing some amount of predictive utility. And a lot of times this predictive utility has worked as it should.
Sure there's some questions because when you get up near the big numbers in the periodic table things get weird. Shells fill in different orders and energy levels get kind of confusing. That's why I vastly prefer hanging out in what are called the "p-block elements" where I've made my chemical home most of my career. I started off at the top of Group IV and am working my way down.
When you mention Phlogiston that really isn't related to the periodic table. Phlogiston was an early attempt to understand combustion and chemical elements but was jettisoned relatively early and quickly.
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