Pnictogens | |||||||||||
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↓ Period | |||||||||||
2 | Nitrogen (N) 7 Other nonmetal | ||||||||||
3 | Phosphorus (P) 15 Other nonmetal | ||||||||||
4 | Arsenic (As) 33 Metalloid | ||||||||||
5 | Antimony (Sb) 51 Metalloid | ||||||||||
6 | Bismuth (Bi) 83 Other metal | ||||||||||
7 | Moscovium (Mc) 115 other metal | ||||||||||
Legend
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The pnictogens[1] (/ˈpnɪktədʒən/ or /ˈnɪktədʒən/; from Ancient Greek: πνῑ́γω "to choke" and -gen, "generator") are the chemical elements in group 15 of the periodic table. This group is also known as the nitrogen group or nitrogen family. Group 15 consists of the elements nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), arsenic (As), antimony (Sb), bismuth (Bi), and moscovium (Mc). This is also the only group in the periodic table in which only one element ends in the common suffix -ium.
Since 1988, it has been called Group 15 by the IUPAC. Before that, in America it was called Group VA, owing to a text by H. C. Deming and the Sargent-Welch Scientific Company, while in Europe it was called Group VB, which the IUPAC had recommended in 1970.[2] (Pronounced "group five A" and "group five B"; "V" is the Roman numeral 5). In semiconductor physics, it is still usually called Group V.[3] The "five" ("V") in the historical names comes from the "pentavalency" of nitrogen, reflected by the stoichiometry of compounds such as N2O5. They have also been called the pentels.