To celebrate National Periodic Table Day (February 7 in the United States) and 2019’s International Year of the Periodic Table, here are a few of our favorite interactive periodic tables.
For your smart phone – Periodic Table 2020 Pro for Android or iPhone
This app is updated every few weeks with new features, additional information, and corrections. This periodic table is nicely optimized for small screens. You can choose a light or dark theme. Information is especially detailed for crystal structure, electron configuration, and prevalence. The app includes additional tables and calculators. Clear definitions are provided for many of the terms used in the app. It visually displays emission spectra, but doesn’t list the wavelengths of the lines.
If you have a tablet, you might also consider the app version of the RSC periodic table, available for Android and iPhone.
For visualizing properties of the elements – Ptable
Ptable offers a multitude of ways to color-code the elements. You can use sliders to highlight properties such as boiling point or ionization energy. You can mouse over a series or group to highlight those elements. You can explore elements by their physical properties, orbitals, isotopes, or compounds. It was last updated in 2017, so it isn’t really inspired by IYPT, but we like it.
For detailed data – WebElements and RSC
WebElements includes some alternate table layouts (such as spiral and extended). Click on a thumbnail by any property and you’ll see a gallery of two- and three-dimensional visualizations to show the periodicity of that property. Information includes five electronegativity scales, though not the recent Rahm scale.
RSC has a clean design and sports a few visualization features similar to Ptable. It includes links to resources such as podcasts and videos about each element. It is a good source of historical information. Great for students who need to cite a reliable source.
For isotope information helpful to spectroscopists – Inorganic Ventures
Click on an element to see emission lines and interferences.
For pretty pictures – The Photographic Periodic Table
This periodic table uses mostly black-and-white photos of historical objects to illustrate the character and uses of the elements. For elements which have not been photographed, a photograph of the discoverer is used.
How current are they?
Most of the tables use data which is a few years old. All list elements 117 and 118. None of them include the revised atomic weight for hafnium (changed to 178.486 ± 0.006 from 178.49 ± 0.02 in December 2019).
None of the tables include the Rahm valence-only electronegativity announced in August 2019.
Tools for measuring the elements
Teledyne CETAC helps scientists identify and measure the elements in the world around us—in rocks, oils, consumer products, or drinking water.
