Periodic Table with Valence Electrons

About this periodic table with valence electrons

Free printable periodic table with valence electrons — the valence electron count for every main-group element and the electrons in each shell for all 118. Color-coded PDF + PNG, Letter size. Every square is drawn from real element data — atomic number, symbol, name and electron shells — rendered at high resolution so it stays crisp when you print it. There are 118 elements, laid out in the standard 18-column form with the lanthanide and actinide series shown below.

Elements are color-coded by category, and a legend printed on the table names every color so you can quickly tell metals, metalloids, nonmetals and noble gases apart.

Reading the valence electrons

The red number in the top-right corner is the number of valence electrons: the electrons in the outer shell, the ones an atom uses to bond. The line along the bottom of each square lists the electrons in each shell, from the inner shell out, so sodium's 2, 8, 1 means two electrons in the first shell, eight in the second and one in the third. That is the information you need to draw a Bohr model.

For the main groups the count follows the column: group 1 has 1, group 2 has 2, and groups 13 to 18 have 3 to 8. Helium has 2, a full first shell. Atoms gain, lose or share electrons to reach a full outer shell of 8, which is why sodium (1) gives one away and chlorine (7) takes one.

Transition metals, lanthanides and actinides have no valence count shown: they can use electrons from more than one shell, so the number depends on the reaction. Their shell lists are still given.

How to read the periodic table

Each element occupies one square showing four things: the atomic number (how many protons the atom has), the element's symbol (one or two letters), its name, and its atomic mass (the average mass of one atom). The columns are called groups — elements in the same group share similar chemical behavior — and the rows are called periods. Reading left to right, top to bottom, follows increasing atomic number.

Element categories

Elements fall into families with shared properties. From the reactive metals on the left to the stable gases on the right, here is what each color group means:

• Alkali metals. Group 1 (except hydrogen) — soft, silvery, highly reactive metals such as lithium and sodium.
• Alkaline earth metals. Group 2 — reactive metals such as magnesium and calcium.
• Transition metals. Groups 3–12 — the large central block, including iron, copper, silver and gold.
• Post-transition metals. Softer metals to the right of the transition block, such as aluminum, tin and lead.
• Metalloids. Elements with properties between metals and nonmetals, such as boron and silicon.
• Reactive nonmetals. Elements essential to life, including carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur.
• Halogens. Group 17 — very reactive nonmetals such as fluorine, chlorine and iodine.
• Noble gases. Group 18 — stable, largely unreactive gases such as helium, neon and argon.
• Lanthanides. The upper series (57–71), the rare-earth elements.
• Actinides. The lower series (89–103), including uranium and plutonium.

How to print

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