Partitioning elements of the Periodic Table via fuzzy clustering technique

Abstract

In this paper we present fuzzy clustering results of the elements of the Periodic Table according to several physical properties related directly to their electronic structure (ionization potential, cohesion energy, conductivity, atomic number). We find that the resulting classes reproduce the Periods of the Periodic Table. Using additional physical properties not directly related to the electronic structure of the elements (compressibility, density) in the fuzzy clustering procedure, we find that the elements of the Periodic Table are partitioned in another way.