Period 6 element Period 6 element A period 6 element is one of the chemical elements in the sixth row (or "period") of the periodic table of the elements, including the lanthanides. The periodic table is laid out in rows to illustrate recurring (periodic) trends in the chemical behaviour of the elements as their atomic number increases: a new row is begun when chemical behaviour begins to repeat, meaning that elements with similar behaviour fall into the same vertical columns. The sixth period contains 32 elements, tied for the most with period 7, beginning with caesium and ending with radon. Lead is currently
History of the periodic table and promethium respectively. During his Manhattan Project research in 1943, Glenn T. Seaborg experienced unexpected difficulties in isolating the elements americium and curium. Seaborg wondered if these elements belonged to a different series, which would explain why their chemical properties were different from what was expected. In 1945, against the advice of colleagues, he proposed a significant change to Mendeleev's table: the actinide series. Seaborg's actinide concept of heavy element electronic structure, predicting that the actinides form a transition series analogous to the rare earth series of lanthanide elements, is now well accepted and included in the periodic table. The