Question

The element eka-silicon in Mendeleev’s periodic table is known as ________ in the modern periodic table.

Answer 1

Hint: This type of naming was used by Mendeleev to predict the elements that was not discovered in his time, according to their position in the periodic table and periodic properties. This element, eka-silicon, is a semiconductor.

Complete answer:
Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev , Russian chemist, was an important contributor to the modern periodic table. Mendeleev arranged the elements according to their atomic masses and chemical properties. During the time of Mendeleev only 63 elements were known. After studying properties of various groups and periods he predicted some of the elements related to their atomic masses in a periodic way.
In this time, there are about 118 elements known in the periodic table.94 are natural elements and 24 elements are synthetic elements.
When Mendeleev predicted the elements according to periodic properties he used prefixes from Sanskrit language for 1,2 and 3 – eka,dwi,tri were used respectively, depending on whether the element is one, two or three places down the known element of the same group.
So,according to this, eka silicon will be Germanium. Germanium was called eka-silicon, till its discovery in 1886. Germanium is of atomic number 32. Pure germanium is a semiconductor with an appearance similar to elemental silicon

Note: Other examples of naming like this is, rhenium was called dwi-manganese before its discovery in 1926, Francium was called as eka-caesium and astatine was called as eka-iodine. Some times, these prefixes were also used to name tranuranic elements.