Editing Chalcogen (section)

==History==

===Early discoveries===
<!--Not supported by its article: [[File:Greekfire-madridskylitzes1.jpg|thumb|Greek fire, an early sulfur-related discovery]]-->
Sulfur has been known since [[ancient world|ancient times]] and is mentioned in the [[Bible]] fifteen times. It was known to the [[ancient Greeks]] and commonly mined by the [[ancient Romans]]. <!--Not supported by the article: It was also historically used as a component of [[Greek fire]].--> In the Middle Ages, it was a key part of [[alchemy|alchemical]] experiments. In the 1700s and 1800s, scientists [[Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac]] and [[Louis-Jacques Thénard]] proved sulfur to be a chemical element.<ref name="ReferenceB"/>

Early attempts to separate oxygen from air were hampered by the fact that air was thought of as a single element up to the 17th and 18th centuries. [[Robert Hooke]], [[Mikhail Lomonosov]], [[Ole Borch]], and [[Pierre Bayden]] all successfully created oxygen, but did not realize it at the time. Oxygen was discovered by [[Joseph Priestley]] in 1774 when he focused sunlight on a sample of [[mercuric oxide]] and collected the resulting gas. [[Carl Wilhelm Scheele]] had also created oxygen in 1771 by the same method, but Scheele did not publish his results until 1777.<ref name="ReferenceB"/>

Tellurium was first discovered in 1783 by [[Franz Joseph Müller von Reichenstein]]. He discovered tellurium in a sample of what is now known as calaverite. Müller assumed at first that the sample was pure antimony, but tests he ran on the sample did not agree with this. Muller then guessed that the sample was [[bismuth sulfide]], but tests confirmed that the sample was not that. For some years, Muller pondered the problem. Eventually he realized that the sample was gold bonded with an unknown element. In 1796, Müller sent part of the sample to the German chemist [[Martin Klaproth]], who purified the undiscovered element. Klaproth decided to call the element tellurium after the Latin word for earth.<ref name="ReferenceB"/>

Selenium was discovered in 1817 by [[Jöns Jacob Berzelius]]. Berzelius noticed a reddish-brown sediment at a sulfuric acid manufacturing plant. The sample was thought to contain arsenic. Berzelius initially thought that the sediment contained tellurium, but came to realize that it also contained a new element, which he named selenium after the Greek moon goddess Selene.<ref name="ReferenceB"/><ref>{{cite journal|last = Trofast|first = Jan|url = http://www.iupac.org/publications/ci/2011/3305/5_trofast.html|title = Berzelius' Discovery of Selenium|journal= Chemistry International|volume=33 |issue=5|date=September–October 2011 |access-date=November 25, 2013}}</ref>

===Periodic table placing===
[[File:Mendelejevs periodiska system 1871.png|thumb|upright=1.5|[[Dmitri Mendeleev]]'s periodic system proposed in 1871 showing oxygen, sulfur, selenium and tellurium part of his group VI]]

Three of the chalcogens (sulfur, selenium, and tellurium) were part of the discovery of [[Periodic table|periodicity]], as they are among a series of triads of elements in the same [[group (periodic table)|group]] that were noted by [[Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner]] as having similar properties.<ref name="The Disappearing Spoon"/> Around 1865 [[John Alexander Reina Newlands|John Newlands]] produced a series of papers where he listed the elements in order of increasing atomic weight and similar physical and chemical properties that recurred at intervals of eight; he likened such periodicity to the [[octave]]s of music.<ref>{{Cite journal |title = On Relations Among the Equivalents |author = Newlands, John A. R. |journal = Chemical News |volume = 10 |pages = 94–95 |date =20 August 1864 |url=http://web.lemoyne.edu/~GIUNTA/EA/NEWLANDSann.HTML |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110101073248/http://web.lemoyne.edu/~GIUNTA/EA/NEWLANDSann.HTML |archive-date=January 1, 2011 |access-date=November 25, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title = On the Law of Octaves |author = Newlands, John A. R. |journal = Chemical News |volume = 12 |page = 83 |date = 18 August 1865 |url=http://web.lemoyne.edu/~GIUNTA/EA/NEWLANDSann.HTML |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110101073248/http://web.lemoyne.edu/~GIUNTA/EA/NEWLANDSann.HTML |archive-date=January 1, 2011 |access-date=November 25, 2013}}</ref> His version included a "group b" consisting of oxygen, sulfur, selenium, tellurium, and [[osmium]].

[[File:Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner]] was among the first to notice similarities between what are now known as chalcogens.]]

After 1869, [[Dmitri Mendeleev]] proposed his periodic table placing oxygen at the top of "group VI" above sulfur, selenium, and tellurium.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Mendelejew |first=Dimitri |year=1869 |title=Über die Beziehungen der Eigenschaften zu den Atomgewichten der Elemente |journal=Zeitschrift für Chemie |pages=405–406 |language=de}}</ref> [[Chromium]], [[molybdenum]], [[tungsten]], and [[uranium]] were sometimes included in this group, but they would be later rearranged as part of [[group 6 element|group VIB]]; uranium would later be moved to the [[actinide]] series. Oxygen, along with sulfur, selenium, tellurium, and later polonium would be grouped in ''group VIA'', until the group's name was changed to ''group 16'' in 1988.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fluck |first1=E.|year=1988 |title=New Notations in the Periodic Table |journal=[[Pure and Applied Chemistry|Pure Appl. Chem.]]|volume=60|pages=431–436|doi=10.1351/pac198860030431|url=http://www.iupac.org/publications/pac/1988/pdf/6003x0431.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221010/http://www.iupac.org/publications/pac/1988/pdf/6003x0431.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-10 |url-status=live|issue=3 |s2cid=96704008|access-date=November 25, 2013}}</ref>

===Modern discoveries===
In the late 19th century, [[Marie Curie]] and [[Pierre Curie]] discovered that a sample of [[pitchblende]] was emitting four times as much radioactivity as could be explained by the presence of uranium alone. The Curies gathered several tons of pitchblende and refined it for several months until they had a pure sample of polonium. The discovery officially took place in 1898. Prior to the invention of particle accelerators, the only way to produce polonium was to extract it over several months from uranium ore.<ref name="ReferenceB"/>

The first attempt at creating livermorium was from 1976 to 1977 at the [[LBNL]], who bombarded curium-248 with calcium-48, but were not successful. After several failed attempts in 1977, 1998, and 1999 by research groups in Russia, Germany, and the US, livermorium was created successfully in 2000 at the [[Joint Institute for Nuclear Research]] by bombarding [[curium]]-248 atoms with calcium-48 atoms. The element was known as ununhexium until it was officially named livermorium in 2012.<ref name="ReferenceB"/>

===Names and etymology===
In the 19th century, [[Jons Jacob Berzelius]] suggested calling the elements in group 16 "amphigens",<ref name="che.uc">{{cite journal|url=http://www.che.uc.edu/jensen/W.%20B.%20Jensen/Reprints/072.%20Chalcogen.pdf|title=A Note on the Term "Chalcogen"|doi=10.1021/ed074p1063|year=1997|author1-link=William B. Jensen|last1=Jensen|first1=William B.|journal=Journal of Chemical Education|volume=74|issue=9|pages=1063|bibcode=1997JChEd..74.1063J|access-date=November 25, 2013|archive-date=October 29, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029185247/http://www.che.uc.edu/jensen/W.%20B.%20Jensen/Reprints/072.%20Chalcogen.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> as the elements in the group formed [[amphid salts]] (salts of [[oxyacid]]s,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/oxysalt |title=Oxysalt - Define Oxysalt at Dictionary.com |publisher=Dictionary.reference.com |access-date=November 25, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Amphigen |title=Amphigen – definition of Amphigen by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia |publisher=Thefreedictionary.com |access-date=November 25, 2013}}</ref> formerly regarded as composed of two oxides, an acid and a basic oxide). The term received some use in the early 1800s but is now obsolete.<ref name="che.uc"/> The name ''chalcogen'' comes from the Greek words ''{{lang|grc|χαλκος}}'' ({{lang|grc-Latn|chalkos}}, literally "[[copper]]"), and ''{{lang|grc|γενές}}'' ({{lang|grc-Latn|genes}}, born,<ref>{{cite web |last=Harper|first=Douglas|title=Online Etymology Dictionary|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=-gen |access-date=November 25, 2013}}</ref> gender, kindle). It was first used in 1932 by [[Wilhelm Biltz]]'s group at [[Leibniz University Hannover]], where it was proposed by [[Werner Fischer (chemist)|Werner Fischer]].<ref name="chalcogen2">{{cite journal|author=Fischer, Werner|title=A Second Note on the Term "Chalcogen"|journal=Journal of Chemical Education|year=2001|volume=78|issue=10|page=1333|doi=10.1021/ed078p1333.1|bibcode = 2001JChEd..78.1333F |doi-access=}}</ref> The word "chalcogen" gained popularity in Germany during the 1930s because the term was analogous to "halogen".<ref>{{cite book|author=Krebs, Robert E. |title=The History And Use of Our Earth's Chemical Elements: A Reference Guide |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yb9xTj72vNAC&pg=PA223 |year=2006 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-313-33438-2 |pages=223– |access-date=November 25, 2013}}</ref> Although the literal meanings of the modern Greek words imply that ''chalcogen'' means "copper-former", this is misleading because the chalcogens have nothing to do with copper in particular. "Ore-former" has been suggested as a better translation,<ref name="chalcogen">{{cite journal|author=Jensen, William B.|journal=Journal of Chemical Education|year=1997|volume=74|issue=9|page=1063|doi=10.1021/ed074p1063|title=A Note on the Term "Chalcogen"|bibcode = 1997JChEd..74.1063J}}</ref> as the vast majority of metal ores are chalcogenides and the word ''{{lang|grc|χαλκος}}'' in ancient Greek was associated with metals and metal-bearing rock in general; copper, and its alloy [[bronze]], was one of the first metals to be used by humans.

Oxygen's name comes from the Greek words ''oxy genes'', meaning "acid-forming". Sulfur's name comes from either the Latin word ''{{lang|la|sulfurium}}'' or the [[Sanskrit]] word ''{{lang|sa-Latn|sulvere}}''; both of those terms are ancient words for sulfur. Selenium is named after the Greek goddess of the moon, [[Selene]], to match the previously discovered element tellurium, whose name comes from the Latin word ''{{lang|la|telus}}'', meaning earth. Polonium is named after Marie Curie's country of birth, Poland.<ref name="The Elements"/> Livermorium is named for the [[Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory]].<ref>{{cite web|last = Stark|first = Anne M|url = https://www.llnl.gov/news/newsreleases/2012/May/NR-12-05-07.html|title = Livermorium and Flerovium join the periodic table of elements|date = May 2012|access-date = November 25, 2013|archive-date = February 19, 2013|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130219040850/https://www.llnl.gov/news/newsreleases/2012/May/NR-12-05-07.html|url-status = dead}}</ref>