Home > Chemical Elements > Tellurium

Overview

The elements that make up Group 16 (VIA) of the periodic table are sometimes called the chalcogens. This name comes from the Greek word for "bronze ore," chalkos. The first two elements in the family, oxygen and sulfur, are often found in such ores. Tellurium is the next to last member of that family. The periodic table is a chart that shows how chemical elements are related to one another.

The chalcogens are one of the most interesting families in the periodic table. The first member, oxygen, is a gas with very unmetal-Like properties. The next two members of the family, sulfur and selenium, are solids, with increasingly metallic properties. Tellurium, near the bottom of the family, looks and behaves very much like most metals. The slow change of properties, from less...