MIREA — Russian Technological University, Institute for Physical Technology, Moscow, Russia:

R. Kh. Akchurin, Professor at the Department of Materials Physics and Chemistry named after B. A. Dogadkin, Doctor of Engineering Sciences, e-mail: rakchur@mail.ru

This paper tells the history of Periodic law developed by D. I. Mendeleev in 1869 while describing preceding attempts to systemize chemical elements. Great attention is given to the work of the German chemist Meyer who in 1864 published a table in which elements were arranged according to their valencies and atomic weights. And in 1870 he presented the second table of elements, which, according to him, was identical to Mendeleev’s system. Similar to Mendeleev’s table, his table had gaps. However, Meyer didn’t say that there could be elements yet undiscovered that could fill the gaps. And this is a principal difference between Meyer’s table and Mendeleev’s Periodic law. The latter helped predict 36 unknown elements and their properties. Discovery of the first two of unknown elements, referred to by Mendeleev as ‘eka-silicium’ and ‘eka-aluminium’ — i. e. germanium (Ge) and gallium (Ga), provided solid proof of the validity and predictive capacity of the Periodic law. Germanium and gallium played a major role in the further development of semiconductor electronics. The paper gives a brief description of the history of these elements telling about the evolution of their production and application in hightech areas. It also provides some information about the global market of germanium and gallium and domestic producers of materials designed on their basis. It is noted that Mendeleev emphasized the development of the country’s industry and had a solid civic stand.

1. Chugaev L. A. Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev. His life and work. Leningrad : Nauchnoe khimiko-tekhnicheskoe izdatelstvo, 1924. Reprinted in “Ekologiya i zhizn”. 2009. No. 1. pp. 12–19.
2. Volkov V. A., Vonskiy E. V., Kuznetsova G. I. Great chemists of the world. Moscow : VSh, 1991. 656 p.
3. The biographies of great chemists. Translated from German. Ed. by G. V. Bykov. Moscow : Mir, 1981. 320 p.
4. Levchenkov S. I. A brief history of chemistry. Rostov-on-Don : YuFU, 2013. 147 p.
5. Kedrov B. M. Over Mendeleev’s manuscripts (on learning about the discovery and development of periodic law). Voprosy istorii estestvoznaniya i tekhniki. 1983. No. 4. pp. 41–64.
6. Trifonov D. N. Mendeleev’s speech that never happened (6 (18) March 1869). Khimiya. 2006. No. 4. pp. 16–28.
7. Mendeleev D. I. Correlation between the elements’ properties and atomic weights. Zhurnal Russkogo khimicheskogo obshchestva. 1869. Vol. 1. pp. 60–77.
8. Mendeleev D. I. The natural system of elements and its application to indicating the properties of undiscovered elements. Zhurnal Russkogo khimicheskogo obshchestva. 1871. Vol. III. pp. 25–56.
9. Storonkin A. V., Dobrotin R. B. The chronicle of Mendeleev’s life and work. Leningrad : Nauka, the Leningrad branch, 1984. 539 p.
10. Semishin V. I. Mendeleev’s system of chemical elements. Moscow : Khimiya, 1972. 188 p.
11. Winkler C. Germanium, Ge, ein neues, nichtmetallisches Element. Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft. 1886. No. 19. pp. 210–211.
12. Winkler C. Mittheilungen ber des Germanium. Journal für praktische Chemie. 1886. No. 34. pp. 177–229.
13. Winkler C. Mittheilungen ber des Germanium. Zweite Abhandlung. Journal für praktische Chemie. 1887. Vol. 36. pp. 177–209.
14. The popular library of chemical elements. Germanium. Nauka i tekhnika. Available at: http://n-t.ru/ri/ps/pb032.htm
15. Scerri E. R. The Periodic Table: Its Story and Its Significance. N.Y. : Oxford University Press, 2007. 368 p.
16. Shchuka A. A. Electronics. Saint Petersburg : BKhV-Peterburg, 2005. 800 p.
17. Milvidskiy M. G. Giredmet’s contribution to the development of semi-conductors. Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii. Materialy Elektronnoi Tekhniki. 2006. No. 3. pp. 8–16.
18. Burba A. A. Development and implementation of a process for extracting germanium during blast smelting of non-ferrous metal ores. Proceedings of the workshop on the problem of extracting germanium during ore processing : Giredmet Information. 1960. No. 7(18).
19. Okunev A. I., Kirr L. D., Skopov G. V. Extraction of germanium and other trace elements from smelter dust. Tsvetnye Metally. 2011. No. 10. pp. 54–58.
20. Company history. Germaniy JSC. Available at: http://www.krasgermanium.com
21. Naumov A. V. Global germanium market and its prospects. Izvestiya vuzov. Tsvetnaya metallurgiya. 2007. No. 4. pp. 32–40.
22. Anoshin K. E., Gasanov A. A., Naumov A. V. Peculiar features of the modern market of germanium. Tsvetnaya metallurgiya. 2016. No. 2. pp. 67–76.
23. The statistics of the global commodity market. Global commodity markets. Available at: http://www.cmmarket.ru/
24. Global Germanium Production Increased by 8.5% in 2012. Available at: https://mcgroup.co.uk/news/20130718/global-germanium-productionincreased-85.html
25. U.S. Geological Survey. Available at: https://www.usgs.gov/
26. Sulimenko L. M. Gallium. The popular library of chemical elements. Vol. 1. Moscow : Nauka, 1983. 409 p.
27. de Boisbaudran Lecoq. Caractres chimiques et spectroscopiques d'un nouveau mtal, le gallium, dcouvert dans une blende de la mine de Pierrefitte, valle d'Argels (Pyrnes). Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l'Académie des sciences. 1875. Vol. 81. pp. 493–495.
28. Sheka I. A., Chaus I. S., Mityureva T. L. Gallium. Kiev : GITL, 1963. 296 p.
29. Eremin N. I. Gallium. Moscow : Metallurgiya, 1964. 168 p.
30. Gasanov A., Naumov A. Commercial production of gallium and indium: Current status and outlook. Electronics: Science, Technology, Business. 2018. No. 4. pp. 156–162.
31. Larichkin F. D., Cherepovitsyn A. E., Novoseltseva V. D., Goncharova L. I. Russian and global gallium market: Status and prospects. News of the Ural State Mining University. 2017. Issue 4 (48). pp. 108–114.
32. Akchurin R. Kh. Semi-conductors AIIIBV. High-purity substances : Monograph. Moscow : Nauchnyy mir, 2018. 996 p.
33. Naumov A. V. On the current status of global gallium market. Izvestiya vuzov. Tsvetnaya metallurgiya. 2014. No. 2. pp. 59–64.
34. Global gallium market. Gallium: Commercial markets and prospects. World economy. Available at: http://www.ereport.ru/articles/commod/gallium.htm
35. Gallium: 2019 World Market Review and Forecast to 2028. Available at: https://mcgroup.co.uk/researches/gallium/
36. Marketing research: Analysis of the global gallium market (99.99%). Available at: http://www.nanonewsnet.ru/research?parent=rubricator&child=getresearch&id=26314/
37. Gallium. outlook to 2029, 10^th edition. Available at: https://roskill.com/market-report/gallium/
38. Gallium. Available at: https://prd-wret.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/assets/palladium/production/s3fs-public/atoms/files/mcs-2019-galli.pdf/
39. Boyarintsev V. I. The great Russian scientist Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev. Moscow : RUSSKIY LAD, 2014. 216 p.
40. Storonkin A. V., Dobrotin R. B. The chronicle of Mendeleev’s life and work. Leningrad : Nauka, the Leningrad branch, 1984. 539 p.