Chalcogen

A Chalcogen is a chemical element that in group 16 of the periodic table.

• Context:
  • It has six valence electrons and is part of the oxygen group.
  • …
• Example(s):
  • Sulfur,
  • Selenium,
  • Tellurium,
  • Polonium,
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • Carbon,
  • Helium,
  • Hydrogen,
  • Nitrogen.
• See: Halogen, Noble Gas, Alkali Metal, Sulfuric Acid, Transition Metal Dichalcogenides, Radioactive Decay, Polonium, Livermorium, Copper.

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References

2023a

• (Open AI ChatGPT, 2023) ⇒ https://chat.openai.com Retrieved: 2023-06-23.
  • Q: What is Chalcogen?
  • A:Chalcogens are a group of elements in the periodic table that includes oxygen, sulfur, selenium, tellurium, and polonium. They are located in Group 16 and share similar electronic configurations and valence shell properties. Oxygen is essential for life, sulfur has industrial applications, selenium and tellurium are semiconductors, and polonium is highly radioactive.

    Chalcogens exhibit diverse chemical properties, can form compounds with many other elements, and participate in various chemical reactions. They play important roles in environmental processes, such as mineral formation and water chemistry, and are involved in biological systems, including enzymatic reactions and metabolism. Chalcogens have significance in fields ranging from chemistry and materials science to environmental studies and biology.

2023b

• (Opera AI Aria, 2023) ⇒ https://help.opera.com/en/browser-ai-faq/ Retrieved: 2023-06-23.
  • Q: What is Chalcogen?
  • A: Chalcogens are a group of chemical elements that are found in Group 16 of the periodic table. Here are some key points about Chalcogens:
    • The term “chalcogen” comes from the Greek words for "ore-former" and "generation".
    • The group includes the elements oxygen (O), sulfur (S), selenium (Se), tellurium (Te), and the synthetic element polonium (Po).
    • Chalcogens are known for their ability to form compounds with a wide variety of other elements, including metals and nonmetals.
    • Oxygen is the most abundant element on Earth and is essential for life as we know it. It is also used in many industrial processes, such as steel production and chemical manufacturing.
    • Sulfur is also a very important element, used in the production of fertilizers, chemicals, and other products.
    • Selenium and tellurium are used in a variety of applications, including electronics, solar panels, and metallurgy.
    • Polonium is a highly radioactive element that is not found in nature in significant quantities.
    • Chalcogens have six valence electrons and share some common properties, such as high electronegativity, high ionization energy, and the ability to form multiple oxidation states.
    • Chalcogens are important in geochemistry, as they play a key role in the formation of minerals and rocks.
    • Chalcogens also have important biological roles, particularly in the form of oxygen and sulfur-containing compounds.

2023c

• (Wikipedia, 2023) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalcogen Retrieved:2023-6-19.
  • The chalcogens (ore forming) (/ˈkælkədʒənz/ KAL-kə-jənz) are the chemical elements in group 16 of the periodic table. This group is also known as the oxygen family. Group 16 consists of the elements oxygen (O), sulfur (S), selenium (Se), tellurium (Te), and the radioactive elements polonium (Po) and livermorium (Lv). Often, oxygen is treated separately from the other chalcogens, sometimes even excluded from the scope of the term "chalcogen" altogether, due to its very different chemical behavior from sulfur, selenium, tellurium, and polonium. The word "chalcogen" is derived from a combination of the Greek word khalkόs (χαλκός) principally meaning copper (the term was also used for bronze/brass, any metal in the poetic sense, ore or coin), and the Latinized Greek word genēs, meaning born or produced.

    Sulfur has been known since antiquity, and oxygen was recognized as an element in the 18th century. Selenium, tellurium and polonium were discovered in the 19th century, and livermorium in 2000. All of the chalcogens have six valence electrons, leaving them two electrons short of a full outer shell. Their most common oxidation states are −2, +2, +4, and +6. They have relatively low atomic radii, especially the lighter ones.

    Lighter chalcogens are typically nontoxic in their elemental form, and are often critical to life, while the heavier chalcogens are typically toxic. All of the naturally occurring chalcogens have some role in biological functions, either as a nutrient or a toxin. Selenium is an important nutrient (among others as a building block of selenocysteine) but is also commonly toxic. Tellurium often has unpleasant effects (although some organisms can use it), and polonium (especially the isotope polonium-210) is always harmful as a result of its radioactivity.

    Sulfur has more than 20 allotropes, oxygen has nine, selenium has at least eight, polonium has two, and only one crystal structure of tellurium has so far been discovered. There are numerous organic chalcogen compounds. Not counting oxygen, organic sulfur compounds are generally the most common, followed by organic selenium compounds and organic tellurium compounds. This trend also occurs with chalcogen pnictides and compounds containing chalcogens and carbon group elements.

    Oxygen is generally obtained by separation of air into nitrogen and oxygen. Sulfur is extracted from oil and natural gas. Selenium and tellurium are produced as byproducts of copper refining. Polonium is most available in naturally occurring actinide-containing materials. Livermorium has been synthesized in particle accelerators. The primary use of elemental oxygen is in steelmaking. Sulfur is mostly converted into sulfuric acid, which is heavily used in the chemical industry. Selenium's most common application is glassmaking. Tellurium compounds are mostly used in optical disks, electronic devices, and solar cells. Some of polonium's applications are due to its radioactivity.

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