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Concept
Period 4 element
Summary
A period 4 element is one of the chemical elements in the fourth row (or period) of the periodic table of the chemical elements. The periodic table is laid out in rows to illustrate recurring (periodic) trends in the chemical behaviour of the elements as their atomic number increases: a new row is begun when chemical behaviour begins to repeat, meaning that elements with similar behaviour fall into the same vertical columns. The fourth period contains 18 elements beginning with potassium and ending with krypton – one element for each of the eighteen groups. It sees the first appearance of d-block (which includes transition metals) in the table.
Every single one of these elements is stable, and many are extremely common in the Earth's crust and/or core; it is the last period with no unstable elements at all. Many of the transition metals in period 4 are very strong, and therefore commonly used in industry, especially iron. Three adjacent elements are known to be toxic, with arsenic one of the most well-known poisons, selenium being toxic to humans in large quantities, and bromine, a toxic liquid. Many elements are essential to humans' survival, such as calcium being what forms bones.
Progressing towards increase of atomic number, the Aufbau principle causes elements of the period to put electrons onto 4s, 3d, and 4p subshells, in that order. However, there are exceptions, such as chromium. The first twelve elements—K, Ca, and transition metals—have from 1 to 12 valence electrons respectively, which are placed on 4s and 3d.
Twelve electrons over the electron configuration of argon reach the configuration of zinc, namely 3d10 4s2. After this element, the filled 3d subshell effectively withdraws from chemistry and the subsequent trend looks much like trends in the periods 2 and 3. The p-block elements of period 4 have their valence shell composed of 4s and 4p subshells of the fourth (n = 4) shell and obey the octet rule.
For quantum chemistry namely this period sees transition from the simplified electron shell paradigm to research of many differently-shaped subshells.
Official source
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