Group 9 element Group 9 element Group 9, numbered by IUPAC nomenclature, is a group of chemical element in the periodic table. Members are cobalt (Co), rhodium (Rh), iridium (Ir) and perhaps also the chemically uncharacterized meitnerium (Mt). These are all transition metals in the d-block. All known isotopes of meitnerium are radioactive with short half-lives, and it is not known to occur in nature; only minute quantities have been synthesized in laboratories. Like other groups, the members of this family show patterns in electron configuration, especially in the outermost shells, resulting in trends in chemical behavior; however, rhodium deviates from the pattern.
Chemical element Chemical element A chemical element is a species of atoms having the same number of protons in their atomic nuclei (that is, the same atomic number, or "Z"). For example, the atomic number of oxygen is 8, so the element oxygen consists of all atoms which have exactly 8 protons. 118 elements have been identified, of which the first 94 occur naturally on Earth with the remaining 24 being synthetic elements. There are 80 elements that have at least one stable isotope and 38 that have exclusively radionuclides, which decay over time into other elements. Iron is the most abundant