PRESENTATION OUTLINE
FIVE ELEMENTS THAT I CHOSE FROM THE PERIODIC TABLE.
Hydrogen was discovered by Henry Cavendish at 1766 in London, England. Origin of name: from the Greek words "hydro" and "genes" meaning "water" and "generator".
In many ways, hydrogen is the perfect fuel. It is abundant, the most efficient and produces no emissions when used in a fuel cell. It's non-toxic, can be produced from renewable resources and is not a greenhouse gas. It's been noted in numerous studies that hydrogen may be the only alternative fuel that can simultaneously reduce a country's dependence on foreign oil and significantly reduce greenhouse gases.
History and Uses: Neon was discovered by Sir William Ramsay, a Scottish chemist, and Morris M. Travers, an English chemist, shortly after their discovery of the element krypton in 1898. Like krypton, neon was discovered through the study of liquefied air.
Boron compounds have been known for thousands of years, but the element was not isolated until 1808 by Sir Humphry Davy, Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac (1778-1850) and Louis Jaques Thenard (1777-1857). This was accomplished through the reaction of boric acid (H3BO3) with potassium.
SIGNIFICANCE AND PRODUCTS
Boron is used in pyrotechnics and flares to produce a green color. Boron has also been used in some rockets as an ignition source. Boron-10, one of the naturally occurring isotopes of boron, is a good absorber of neutrons and is used in the control rods of nuclear reactors, as a radiation shield and as a neutron detector. Boron filaments are used in the aerospace industry because of their high-strength and lightweight.
Helium was discovered by Sir William Ramsay and independently by N. A. Langley and P. T. Cleve at 1895 in London, England and Uppsala, Sweden. Origin of name: from the Greek word "helios" meaning "sun".
SIGNIFICANCE AND PRODUCTS
The main source of helium is natural gas. It is used to inflate and provide lift for balloons and airships; in breathing mixtures for deep-sea divers; as a pressurizer for the fuel tanks of liquid-fueled rockets; in helium-neon lasers; as an inert gas shield for arc welding; as a protective gas in growing silicon and germanium crystals and producing titanium and zirconium; and as a superfluid in the form of helium II.
Krypton was discovered in 1898 by Sir William Ramsay and his student Morris Travers in the residue left after liquid air had nearly boiled away. Krypton was left in the residue after boiling away water, oxygen, nitrogen, helium, and argon from the sample of air.
