Contents CHEMISTRY International January-March 2019 Volume 41 No. 1 Introduction The International Year of the Periodic Table 2019 2 by Jan Reedijk and Natalia Tarasova Features IUPAC and the Periodic Table by G.J. Leigh 6 Criteria for New Element Discovery: Providing Assurance 10 in a Field of Allure and Romance by Sigurd Hofmann Looking Backwards and Forwards at the Development 16 of the Periodic Table by Eric Scerri Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights: History of IUPAC 21 Commission II.1 in the Service of Chemistry by John R. De Laeter IUPAC Commission II.1 Today by Juris Meija 24 Isotopes Matter by Norman E. Holden, Tyler B. Coplen, and Peter Mahaffy 27 The New SI: The International System of Units is Getting 32 a Makeover by Ian Mills and Roberto Marquardt IUPAC Wire Election of IUPAC Officers and Bureau Members 36 Juris Meija Made the Top 40 Under 40 37 C. Oliver Kappe is Awarded the 2018 IUPAC-ThalesNano Prize 37 for Flow Chemistry OPCW to Further Enhance Contributions to United Nations’ 38 Sustainable Development Goals 1001 Inventions: Journeys from Alchemy to Chemistry 38 Stamps International 39 Project Place Critical evaluation of homogeneous equilibrium and solubility 40 constants of gadolinium in environmental and biological- relevant conditions 23rd UNESCO/IUPAC Postgraduate Course in Polymer Science 40 Guidance for the Compilation, Critical Evaluation and 40 Dissemination of Chemical Data Making an imPACt On the Discovery of New Elements (IUPAC/IUPAP 42 Provisional Report) IUPAC Periodic Table of the Elements and Isotopes 42 for the Education Community (IUPAC Technical Report) Bookworm Chemistry: Our Past, Present, and Future reviewed y Richard J Sundberg 43 Conference Call Solution Chemistry 45 Organometallic Chemistry and Challenges in CO2 Activation 46 and Utilization Congreso Latino Americano de Química 48 Energetic Materials 50 Where 2B & Y 51 Mark Your Calendar 54 The International Year of the Periodic Table 2019 Jan Reedijk and Natalia Tarasova co-chairs of the InterUnion Management Committee IYPT2019 his year we celebrate the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements in the format proposed by TMendeleev in 1869, and its continued develop- ment to this day. This issue of CI describes several aspects of the Periodic Table, its history and celebra- tion, and also addresses the pathways to possible new elements. In this preface we address some highlights of the papers and pay attention to the history of events that have led to IYPT2019. In July 2016, professor Martyn Poliako hinted that in 2019 the Periodic Table would celebrate its 150th anni- versary, and the ball started to roll. On 30 September 2016, 3000 participants of the 20th Mendeleev Con- gress, held in Ekaterinburg, Russia, unanimously vot- ed for the proclamation of the International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT) in 2019. The resolution was supported by the Mendeleev Russian Chemical So- Jan Reedijk and Natalia Tarasova meeting at ciety and the Russian Academy of Sciences. In early UNESCO on 29 November 2018 to review the 2017, during and after the celebrations of the discov- preparations for the IYPT2019 Opening Ceremony. ery and naming of nihonium, moscovium, tennessine and oganesson, the Mendeleev Chemical Society from "On 20 December 2017, the United Nations General Russia took the initiative to explore the possibility to Assembly proclaimed 2019 the International Year have 2019 named as the International Year of the Pe- of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements (IYPT riodic Table. The Russian Academy of Sciences invit- 2019) during its 74th Plenary Meeting, at its 72nd ed IUPAC to be the leading union for the IYPT, as the Session. In proclaiming an International Year fo- identification of a leading international science union cusing on the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements is a compulsory part of the UNESCO application pro- and its applications, the United Nations has recog- cedure. IUPAC ‘s Executive Committee embraced the nized the importance of raising global awareness initiative and approached other International scien- of how chemistry promotes sustainable develop- tifi c unions to join forces, i.e. the International Union ment and provides solutions to global challenges of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP), International in energy, education, agriculture and health. In- Astronomical Union (IAU), European Chemical So- deed, the resolution was adopted as part of a more ciety (EuChemS), the International Union of History general Agenda item on Science and technology and Philosophy of Science and Technology (IUHPS), for development. This International Year will bring and the International Science Council (ISC, previously together many di erent stakeholders including known as ICSU, the International Council for Science UNESCO, scientifi c societies and unions, educa- which merged in July 2018 with ISSC, the International tional and research institutions, technology plat- Social Sciences Council). forms, non-profi t organizations and private sector A steering committee of 16 people, consisting of partners to promote and celebrate the signifi cance leaders of the unions and other experts, was formed in of the Periodic Table of Elements and its applica- the fall of 2017, and a prospectus was produced for sub- tions to society during 2019." mission and application to UNESCO and the United Na- tions. Ultimately, the fi nal application for the IYPT was The IYPT activities will be supervised and managed by endorsed by a number of international scientifi c unions, the International Steering Committee (founding team), including IUPAC, IUPAP, EuChemS, IAU, and IUHPS. an International Management Committee in collabo- About the UN decision, we copy from the 2018 CI ration with the Innovation and Capacity Building Sec- April issue [1]: tion, Division of Science Policy and Capacity Building 2 Chemistry International January-March 2019 Dates Activity Description Website Jan 29 O cial Opening at UNESCO www.iypt2019.org Feb 11-12 Murcia Symposium: Setting their Table: www.iypt2019women.es/ Women and the Periodic Table of Elements scientifi c_topics.php All year EuChemS special periodic table showing www.euchems.eu/euchems- relative amounts of the elements periodic-table/ All year IUPAC Periodic Table Challenge: Online quiz www.iupac.org/100 All year EuChemS young chemists: Chemistry www.euchems.eu/divisions/ Rediscovered game european-young-chemists-network/ chemistry-rediscovered/ All year Periodic Table of Younger Chemists: iupac.org/100/pt-of-chemist/ International younger chemists network Dec 5 IYPT2019 Closing Ceremony in Tokyo, Japan, www.iypt2019.jp/eng endorsed by UNESCO and hosted by Sci- ence Council of Japan IUPAC subcommittee Table 1: Selection of International Activities to celebrate the International Year of the Periodic Table 2019 Natural Sciences Sector UNESCO and an International in 2018/2019 for IYPT duties. The fi rst of these appoin- Secretariat, located in the Netherlands, that started tees has started has started already: Dr. Natalia Tsiv- operating on 1 April 2018. adze from Moscow, and is assisting the Management In early 2018, IUPAC has started the execution by Committee in planning several activities, including the formation of a Management Committee (MC), initially Opening Ceremony. consisting of six members from IUPAC, and a little later extended to include six UNESCO members, represen- Table or System? tatives of the other scientifi c unions and of a few ma- In the 19th century most publications in Chemistry jor chemical societies representing di erent regions of were in German. This included Mendeleev, Meyer, and the world. (see full composition online at iypt2019.org/ other colleagues who published their work in German about-us ) scientifi c journals. They were writing about the “Sys- Apart from planning the opening ceremony on 29 tem,” as there was no "Table" in the beginning. The fi rst January 2019 and the closing ceremony in December indication of a tabular format—rotated by 90 degrees 2019, this Management Committee will not organize from the present Tables—came from Mendeleev (see many other events. In fact, the main duty of the Man- fi gure 1, left side). agement Committee is the coordination and facilita- A number of others also worked on understanding tion of activities and where needed give assistance in the System, but is was Mendeleev who fi rst shaped it the initiation, relevant publicity, and sponsoring deal- into tabular form (see fi gure 1 right), which is the basis ing with these activities, as well as dissemination via of the current Periodic Tables, including the one com- the website and social media and in collaboration with monly called IUPAC Periodic Table (see back cover of co-applying International Unions. An important duty of this issue). the Management Committee has been and still is fi nd- To illustrate the history and process of the discov- ing proper sponsors for the several international events. eries, we cite from the IYPT application prospectus: It is to be stressed that IYPT is not IUPAC only and the list a few selected activities (Table 1) illustrates that "The Periodic Table (System) was discovered in an diversity. era when atomic structures and electrons where UNESCO o ered the option that countries appoint not known, and equipment to purify and sepa- an IYPT ambassador (secondment) based at UNESCO rate elements was still primitive. The discoveries Chemistry International January-March 2019 3 The International Year of the Periodic Table 2019 Figure 1: The vertical version of Mendeleev’s Table in 1869, in original handwriting (left) and the first vertical Table in print (right). (courtesy Mendeleev Society) of Mendeleev, Meyer and others are therefore to arrangement, in fact just after Mendeleev. There be seen as immense. After the fi rst International is little discussion that Mendeleev published his Conference of Chemists in 1860 (Karlsruhe), which system noting that there was a periodic classi- both Mendeleev and Meyer attended, it became fi cation, i.e. the periodic law and the systematic clear that a number of scientists had noted some arrangements of the elements, including some regularities between chemical elements.