Group 5 element - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Group →	5
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4 Period 4 element A period 4 element is one of the chemical elements in the fourth row of the periodic table of the elements. The periodic table is laid out in rows to illustrate recurring trends in the chemical behaviour of the elements as their atomic number increases: a new row is begun when chemical behaviour...
5 Period 5 element A period 5 element is one of the chemical elements in the fifth row of the periodic table of the elements. The periodic table is laid out in rows to illustrate recurring trends in the chemical behaviour of the elements as their atomic number increases: a new row is begun when chemical behaviour...
6 Period 6 element A period 6 element is one of the chemical elements in the sixth row of the periodic table of the elements, including the lanthanides...
7 Period 7 element A period 7 element is one of the chemical elements in the seventh row of the periodic table of the chemical elements. The periodic table is laid out in rows to illustrate recurring trends in the chemical behaviour of the elements as their atomic number increases: a new row is begun when chemical...

A Group 5 element is a chemical element

Chemical element

A chemical element is a pure chemical substance consisting of one type of atom distinguished by its atomic number, which is the number of protons in its nucleus. Familiar examples of elements include carbon, oxygen, aluminum, iron, copper, gold, mercury, and lead.As of November 2011, 118 elements...

in the fifth group in the periodic table

Periodic table

The periodic table of the chemical elements is a tabular display of the 118 known chemical elements organized by selected properties of their atomic structures. Elements are presented by increasing atomic number, the number of protons in an atom's atomic nucleus...

. In the modern IUPAC nomenclature, Group 5 of the periodic table contains vanadium
Vanadium
Vanadium is a chemical element with the symbol V and atomic number 23. It is a hard, silvery gray, ductile and malleable transition metal. The formation of an oxide layer stabilizes the metal against oxidation. The element is found only in chemically combined form in nature...

(V), niobium
Niobium
Niobium or columbium , is a chemical element with the symbol Nb and atomic number 41. It's a soft, grey, ductile transition metal, which is often found in the pyrochlore mineral, the main commercial source for niobium, and columbite...

(Nb), tantalum
Tantalum
Tantalum is a chemical element with the symbol Ta and atomic number 73. Previously known as tantalium, the name comes from Tantalus, a character in Greek mythology. Tantalum is a rare, hard, blue-gray, lustrous transition metal that is highly corrosion resistant. It is part of the refractory...

(Ta) and dubnium
Dubnium
The Soviet team proposed the name nielsbohrium in honor of the Danish nuclear physicist Niels Bohr. The American team proposed that the new element should be named hahnium , in honor of the late German chemist Otto Hahn...

(Db). This group lies in the d-block

D-block

The d-block is the portion of the periodic table that contains the element groups 3-12. These groups correspond to the filling of the atomic d-orbital subshell, with electron configurations ranging from s2d1 to s2d10...

of the periodic table. The group itself has not acquired a trivial name

Trivial name

In chemistry, a trivial name is a common name or vernacular name; it is a non-systematic name or non-scientific name. That is, the name is not recognised according to the rules of any formal system of nomenclature...

; it belongs to the broader grouping of the transition metal

Transition metal

The term transition metal has two possible meanings:*The IUPAC definition states that a transition metal is "an element whose atom has an incomplete d sub-shell, or which can give rise to cations with an incomplete d sub-shell." Group 12 elements are not transition metals in this definition.*Some...

s.

The lighter three Group 5 elements occur naturally and do share similar properties; all three are hard refractory metals

Refractory metals

Refractory metals are a class of metals that are extraordinarily resistant to heat and wear. The expression is mostly used in the context of materials science, metallurgy and engineering. The definition of which elements belong to this group differs...

under standard conditions. The fourth element, dubnium

Dubnium

The Soviet team proposed the name nielsbohrium in honor of the Danish nuclear physicist Niels Bohr. The American team proposed that the new element should be named hahnium , in honor of the late German chemist Otto Hahn...

, has been synthesized in the laboratory, but it hasn't been found occurring in nature, with half-life of the most stable isotope, dubnium-268, being only 28 hours, and other isotopes even more radioactive. To date, no experiment in a supercollider

Supercollider

A Supercollider is a high energy particle accelerator. The term may refer to:* Superconducting Super Collider, planned 80 km project in Texas, canceled in 1993...

was conducted to synthesize

Synthetic element

In chemistry, a synthetic element is a chemical element that is too unstable to occur naturally on Earth, and therefore has to be created artificially. So far 30 synthetic elements have been discovered—that is, synthesized...

the next member of the group, unpentpentium (Upp). As unpentpentium is a late member of period 8 element

Period 8 element

A period 8 element is any one of 50 hypothetical chemical elements belonging to an eighth period of the periodic table of the elements. They may be referred to using IUPAC systematic element names. None of these elements have been created, and it is possible that none have isotopes with stable...

it is unlikely that this element will be synthesized in the near future.

Chemistry

Like other groups, the members of this family show patterns in its electron configuration

Electron configuration

In atomic physics and quantum chemistry, electron configuration is the arrangement of electrons of an atom, a molecule, or other physical structure...

, especially the outermost shells, though niobium curiously does not follow the trend:

Z Atomic number In chemistry and physics, the atomic number is the number of protons found in the nucleus of an atom and therefore identical to the charge number of the nucleus. It is conventionally represented by the symbol Z. The atomic number uniquely identifies a chemical element...	Element Chemical element A chemical element is a pure chemical substance consisting of one type of atom distinguished by its atomic number, which is the number of protons in its nucleus. Familiar examples of elements include carbon, oxygen, aluminum, iron, copper, gold, mercury, and lead.As of November 2011, 118 elements...	No. of electrons/shell Electron shell An electron shell may be thought of as an orbit followed by electrons around an atom's nucleus. The closest shell to the nucleus is called the "1 shell" , followed by the "2 shell" , then the "3 shell" , and so on further and further from the nucleus. The shell letters K,L,M,.....
23	vanadium	2, 8, 11, 2
41	niobium	2, 8, 18, 12, 1
73	tantalum	2, 8, 18, 32, 11, 2
105	dubnium	2, 8, 18, 32, 32, 11, 2

Most of the chemistry has been observed only for the first three members of the group, the chemistry of dubnium is not very established and therefore the rest of the section deals only with vanadium, niobium, and tantalum. All the elements of the group are reactive metals with a high melting points (1910 °C, 2477 °C, 3017 °C). The reactivity is not always obvious due to the rapid formation of a stable oxide layer, which prevents further reactions, similarly to trends in Group 3 or Group 4. The metals form different oxides: vanadium forms vanadium(II) oxide

Vanadium(II) oxide

Vanadium oxide, VO, is one of the many oxides of vanadium. VO is a long-lived, electronically neutral reagent chemical. It adopts a distorted NaCl structure and contains weak V-V metal to metal bonds. As shown by band theory, VO is a conductor of electricity due to its partially filled conduction...

, vanadium(III) oxide

Vanadium(III) oxide

Vanadium trioxide is the chemical compound V2O3. It is prepared by reduction of V2O5 with hydrogen or carbon monoxide.It is a basic oxide dissolving in acids to give reducing vanadium solutions. V2O3 has the corundum structure. It is antiferromagnetic with a critical temperature of 160 K...

, vanadium(IV) oxide

Vanadium(IV) oxide

Vanadium oxide is the chemical compound VO2. It is formed in the contact process from V2O5, which acts as a catalyst.Vanadium oxide is amphoteric, dissolving in non-oxidising acids to give the vanadyl ion, [VO]2+ and in alkali to give the [V4O9]2− ion, or at high pH [VO4]4−...

and vanadium(V) oxide

Vanadium(V) oxide

Vanadium oxide is the chemical compound with the formula V2O5. Commonly known as vanadium pentoxide, this brown/yellow solid is the most stable and common compound of vanadium. Upon heating it reversibly loses oxygen...

, niobium forms niobium(II) oxide, niobium(IV) oxide and niobium(V) oxide, but out of tantalum oxides only tantalum(V) oxide is characterized. Metal(V) oxides are generally nonreactive and act like acids rather than bases, but the lower oxides are less stable. They, however, have some unusual properties for oxides, such as high electric conductivity.

All three elements form various inorganic compounds

Inorganic chemistry

Inorganic chemistry is the branch of chemistry concerned with the properties and behavior of inorganic compounds. This field covers all chemical compounds except the myriad organic compounds , which are the subjects of organic chemistry...

, generally in the oxidation state of +5. Lower oxidation states are also known, but they are less stable, decreasing in stability with atomic mass increase.

History

The discovery of all elements in the group led to controversies. The verification of those discoveries was difficult due to similarity of vanadium and group 6 element

Group 6 element

A Group 6 element is one in the series of elements in group 6 in the periodic table, which consists of the transition metals chromium , molybdenum , tungsten , and seaborgium ....

chromium, the chemical similarity of niobium

Niobium

Niobium or columbium , is a chemical element with the symbol Nb and atomic number 41. It's a soft, grey, ductile transition metal, which is often found in the pyrochlore mineral, the main commercial source for niobium, and columbite...

and tantalum

Tantalum

Tantalum is a chemical element with the symbol Ta and atomic number 73. Previously known as tantalium, the name comes from Tantalus, a character in Greek mythology. Tantalum is a rare, hard, blue-gray, lustrous transition metal that is highly corrosion resistant. It is part of the refractory...

and the complicated setup which was necessary to produce a few atoms of dubnium.

Biological occurrences

Out of the group 5 elements, only vanadium has been identified as playing a role in the biological chemistry of living systems, but even it plays a very limited role in biology

Biology

Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...

, and is more important in ocean environments than on land.

Vanadium, essential to ascidians

Ascidiacea

Ascidiacea is a class in the Tunicata subphylum of sac-like marine invertebrate filter feeders. Ascidians are characterized by a tough outer "tunic" made of the polysaccharide tunicin, as compared to other tunicates which are less rigid.Ascidians are found all over the world, usually in shallow...

and tunicate

Tunicate

Tunicates, also known as urochordates, are members of the subphylum Tunicata, previously known as Urochordata, a group of underwater saclike filter feeders with incurrent and excurrent siphons that is classified within the phylum Chordata. While most tunicates live on the ocean floor, others such...

s as vanabins

Vanabins

Vanabins are a specific group of vanadium-binding metalloproteins. Vanabins are found almost exclusively in the blood cells, or vanadocytes of some ascidians and tunicates . The vanabins extracted from tunicate vanadocytes are often called hemovanadins...

, has been known in the blood cell

Blood cell

A blood cell, also called a hematocyte, is a cell normally found in blood. In mammals, these fall into three general categories:* red blood cells — Erythrocytes* white blood cells — Leukocytes* platelets — Thrombocytes...

s of Ascidiacea

Ascidiacea

(sea squirts) since 1911 Vanadium-dependent bromoperoxidase

Bromoperoxidase

Bromoperoxidases are enzymes that catalyse the bromination of hydrocarbons. The enzymes accomplish this reaction via the following reaction:Related chloroperoxidase enzymes effect chlorination....

generates organobromine compounds in a number of species of marine algae

Algae

Algae are a large and diverse group of simple, typically autotrophic organisms, ranging from unicellular to multicellular forms, such as the giant kelps that grow to 65 meters in length. They are photosynthetic like plants, and "simple" because their tissues are not organized into the many...

.

Rat

Rat

Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...

s and chicken

Chicken

The chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird...

s are also known to require vanadium in very small amounts and deficiencies result in reduced growth and impaired reproduction. Vanadium is a relatively controversial dietary supplement

Dietary supplement

A dietary supplement, also known as food supplement or nutritional supplement, is a preparation intended to supplement the diet and provide nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, fiber, fatty acids, or amino acids, that may be missing or may not be consumed in sufficient quantities in a person's diet...

, primarily for increasing insulin

Insulin

Insulin is a hormone central to regulating carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body. Insulin causes cells in the liver, muscle, and fat tissue to take up glucose from the blood, storing it as glycogen in the liver and muscle....

sensitivity and body-building. Vanadyl sulfate may improve glucose control in people with type 2 diabetes. In addition, decavanadate and oxovanadates are species that potentially have many biological activities and that have been successfully used as tools in the comprehension of several biochemical processes.

Chemistry

History

Biological occurrences

See also