Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Elements

Please note that User:An anonymous username, not my real name and perhaps some others have very recently done mass AfD nominations of chemistry/elements related data pages. So far I have seen ones for Boiling points of the elements (data page), Lithium chloride (data page), Melting points of the elements (data page) and Atomic radii of the elements (data page); there may be more science related pages done or planned. Maybe I missed it, but this is certainly something that I think should have been discussed at Wikiproject chemistry and perhaps here first for a concensus.

You can express opinions on this both at WT:Chemistry#Mass AfD nominations of chemistry related data pages and at the respective AfD pages (go to the main page then follow the link). AfD discussions are typically open for at least 7 days. Ldm1954 (talk) 02:47, 3 February 2026 (UTC)

For the chemical elements data pages this will create a problem if they are deleted: at the moment the chemical element infoboxes all link to Chemical elements data references and thence to the data pages. Therefore, the information in the infoboxes will be unreferenced if these deletions go through.

I have put in keep votes under the elements ones, but in case the deletions succeed, I have copied over the data pages into my userspace. That should give us time in that case to deal with moving all the citations to get away from this 2005 system... Double sharp (talk) 07:50, 3 February 2026 (UTC)

Comment, there have been multiple comments/votes at the AfD pages, which to me tend towards WP:SNOW keep. There are a few issues on data pages for specific compounds as mentioned by Fishsicles at WT:Chemistry#Chemistry data page cleanup which I think merit further discussion to establish a consensus for the future. If you are interested please comment at that discussion.

Ldm1954 (talk) 16:28, 3 February 2026 (UTC)

Rhodium has been nominated for a good article reassessment. If you are interested in the discussion, please participate by adding your comments to the reassessment page. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, the good article status may be removed from the article. Z1720 (talk) 23:07, 18 February 2026 (UTC)

Iridium's image kind of seems to have rather poor lighting and coloration, like it was shot in the dark with bad color balance. Are we sure a better image does not exist out there? ~2026-18025-91 (talk) 23:03, 22 March 2026 (UTC)

There is better (?) lighting on File:Iridium (77 Ir).jpg but honestly I have not found many that I would call "good photos" in the Iridium category. -- Reconrabbit 23:51, 22 March 2026 (UTC)

Should the image be replaced due to the lighting condition then? I think it would be better for an encyclopedia. ~2026-18222-90 (talk) 19:15, 24 March 2026 (UTC)

Ok, done. -- Reconrabbit 19:30, 24 March 2026 (UTC)

@SlippyFish0829 has been adding "the" to the intro for Elements: eg here for Si. Should these all be reverted? Johnjbarton (talk) 03:41, 23 March 2026 (UTC)

@Johnjbarton: I can't see anything wrong with that; it's referring to the specific chemical symbol "Si". Bazza 7 (talk) 09:48, 23 March 2026 (UTC)

We have established a pattern for first sentence of all of the elements, so this change would be against consensus as far as I understand it. Johnjbarton (talk) 18:03, 23 March 2026 (UTC)

@Johnjbarton: I'd taken it as a complaint about it being a grammatical error, which it isn't; but the agreed wording takes precedence, thanks for reminding me. I've left a note on @SlippyFish0829's talk page and restored the few articles which have been amended. Bazza 7 (talk) 18:56, 23 March 2026 (UTC)

A topic on Talk:Iodine challenges our content on Iodine

• Molar heat capacity 54.44 J/(mol·K) (I2)
• Specific heat capacity 428.999 J/(kg·K) (I2)

The latter is computed by dividing the Molar heat capacity by atomic weight, so this will fail for I2. The content is unsourced so I plan to remove it. However the issue seems fundamental and may be common across elements. Is this "heat capacity per mole of atom"? No I guess, which may be the source of the issue. Our table is ambiguous so we need be clearer or remove the values. Any one know the best source? Johnjbarton (talk) 16:56, 25 March 2026 (UTC)

Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry provides the physical properties of most elements in J/(g·K). It's accessible through the Wikipedia Library (Wiley). Presumably you can extrapolate the molar heat capacity from that. They provide the following values for iodine:

• Solid iodine: 0.21163 + 19.615 × 10−5 t J/(g·K) at 25–113.6 °C
• Liquid iodine: 0.3163 J/(g·K) at 113.6–184 °C
• Gaseous iodine: 0.1464 J/(g·K) at 25–1200 °C

-- Reconrabbit 18:09, 25 March 2026 (UTC)

Thanks! The Heat capacities of the elements (data page) mentioned by Double sharp lists two values,

• use (I2) 54.44 J/(mol·K) and 0.214 J/(g·K),

close to the Ullmann's value, but half of the number we report. This difference is consistent with the challenge and I believe a consequence of the erroneous calculation 54.44/126.9, molar heat capacity/atomic weight. Using 54.44/(2*126.9) for the molecular weight of I₂ would yield 0.214 J/(g·K). Johnjbarton (talk) 15:32, 26 March 2026 (UTC)

Regarding the state of sourcing, as I wrote there: If you look at the bottom of the infoboxes, you will find "references" which links you to these data pages; unfortunately, maybe because almost everything by now on WP uses the bracketed-number citations, this 2005 system of referencing seems to be confusing a lot of people these days. (It is mostly the way it is because no one has actually gone through all 118 element infoboxes to update the system. So the data is all referenced, it just doesn't look like it is because it uses a different system of referencing to everything else.) This specific value is from Lange's handbook as shown at Heat capacities of the elements (data page). Going forward, it may be best to just put in the work to update the system to make it consistent with everything else, though it would take some time. Double sharp (talk) 09:51, 26 March 2026 (UTC)