Wikipedia:WikiProject Elements/Pictures

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This is a compilation of the highest quality images on all the chemical elements in their pure form (aside from some colorless gases) and which are currently in use in the element infoboxes. In order to better keep track of their quality, they have been rated and grouped (see key below). Effort should be put into finding new pictures for the missing entries (red) and replacements for the very low quality pictures (yellow).

Pictorial table

Key

FA: current Featured Picture used in the infobox

A: current infobox picture is of high quality (could become FP)

B: current infobox picture is of good quality

C: current infobox image is of poor technical or encyclopedic quality

Start: only copyrighted pictures available

Stub: no pictures available

Redirect: element has not been isolated in macroscopic amounts in pure form

Copyrighted images

84. Polonium: File:Polonium.jpg (rating: B)
96. Curium: File:Curium.jpg (rating: B)

Conclusions

1. At last count 95/97 of the 97 elements (hydrogen through einsteinium, except astatine and francium) isolated in pure form and in macroscopic quantities have images.
2. There are few images of very low encyclopedic quality for which it should be relatively easy to obtain higher quality: N (liquid), Ca.
3. Some elements are still missing images: Pm, Rn. Images of these might exist out there so if you track one of them (the images, not the element, unless of course you are qualified to be working with them), upload and insert it with a non-free use rationale. (But for Rn, make sure it actually visibly shows the element, or it'll probably get deleted.)
4. A few other images are of low quality but it might be hard to find versions of higher quality: Ba (oxidises too easily), Ra, Pa (latter two radioactive).
5. A few images are only available as fair-use: Po, Cm. It may be possible to find a free alternative (although it would be quite difficult).
6. Some gaseous element infoboxes do not contain a picture of the pure element as a liquid, although they are, or should be available: H, He? (see below), Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe.

Other pictures

Possible alternatives

• 
  Chlorine
• 
  Aluminium
• 
  Silicon
• 
  Liquid helium
• 
  Bismuth, oxidized surface
• 
  Chromium
• 
  Hafnium
• 
  Rhodium
• 
  Curium
• 
  Caesium crystals
• 
  Iodine
• 
  "glassy" carbon

Featured pictures

• 
  Chlorine
• 
  Bromine
• 
  Bismuth
• 
  Copper
• 
  Vanadium crystal bar and 1 cm³ cube
• 
  Platinum nugget
• 
  Nickel electrolytic and 1 cm³ cube
• 
  Manganese electrolytic and 1 cm³ cube
• 
  One half of a ruthenium bar

Element Picture Progress

Here is the current progress of locating pictures for the remaining elements without images, and what users can possibly do to help the search. Feel free to add your own findings (remember to sign), or discuss them on this page's talk page. See here for more details.

Poor quality images: Nitrogen, Calcium, Barium, Mercury

These elements already have images but they are not the highest quality. These elements aren't too rare, so it shouldn't be too hard to find other pictures. Google's probably the best bet here but it may also be worth asking one of Wikipedia's element photographers (a certain person comes to mind) to see if they can get a better photo. Barium may be slightly harder but the ideas are the same. Nicholasb07 (talk) 08:51, 23 March 2012 (UTC)

Alchemist-hp replaced the (formerly bad) Sr image and said (a year ago) that he would try to take better pictures of Ca, Sr, Ba, Se, Sn, Hg and Tl, but only Sr was done. The Se and Tl images were changed; the Sn image is still the same but is now rated as "B" (instead of "C") on the scale at WP:ELEM/PIC. He never mentioned N. Double sharp (talk) 10:13, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Here are some nice pictures of liquid mercury from Jurii:

• 
  1
• 
  2

Double sharp (talk) 13:36, 12 May 2012 (UTC)

Manganese is also a rather low-quality picture (285x283 px). Why are we not using the image that Alchemist-hp has provided in the alternatives section? That's very high-quality (5424x3368 px). Jacob S-589 (talk) 23:50, 25 September 2013 (UTC)

It's far too oxidized to be able to claim to show the pure element. Ni also has the same problem (though to a lesser degree). Double sharp (talk) 11:04, 26 September 2013 (UTC)

Promethium

Promethium is not an easy image to find, however, out of all the elements without a picture, it is one of the two most likely to have a picture discovered. The only pictures floating around the place are of promethium chloride and promethium oxide, but not the metal itself. This is likely because the metal is not used for anything, it's hard to make, and there's no need to make any. I recently discovered a paper by a scientist who first made promethium metal, but it contained no images. So I'm out of ideas, we're just going to have to wait around for this one, doing the occasional Google search every now and then. Nicholasb07 (talk) 08:51, 23 March 2012 (UTC)

Check Google Images, as there may be a few images of promethium floating around. Gcchemistry (talk) 22:12, 7 December 2012 (UTC)

There doesn't appear to be anything. Double sharp (talk) 13:35, 3 January 2013 (UTC)

This appears to be a genuine picture of the metal: [1]. Nergaal (talk) 16:34, 25 January 2013 (UTC)

Looks like a watch hand, probably with Pm paint applied; see also the RGB company version (further down that page)... Double sharp (talk) 13:50, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

Astatine

Astatine is the least likely element to ever get any image whatsoever. At least for all the elements below 100, there is something. A picture of a compound, a picture of a very small amount, or an energy emission image. But for astatine, there is nothing. All we know is that astatine is apparently a black solid, which according to the sources I've found is only a prediction. This page basically sums up the best we're going to get: either a picture of uranium ore, which contains an extremely miniscule amount of astatine, or a picture of a discovery paper, showing that astatine was detected rather than observed directly. There is a very small chance that a light/heat emission photo may show up, similar to that of francium, but this is only a depiction of the energy due to radiation and will not qualify for an infobox picture. Only time (and occasional googling) will tell, I wouldn't get your hopes up on this one. Nicholasb07 (talk) 08:51, 23 March 2012 (UTC)

Francium

There are techinically a few pictures of francium floating around, 2 of which are on the element's article (the 300,000 atom heat one and the 200,000 atom light one), and 2 here (the black and white one of 1000 atoms, and the discovery paper). However, none of these depict the atom directly, they are just images of the heat and light emitted by radiation. Technically, a photo captures the emission of light, so one would think that these photos are fine, but in reality, all you're seeing is energy, not francium. As for a picture of the actual element, even an optimistic person like myself would realise this is impossible given the element's extremely short half life. I'm happy with what we have and I wouldn't encourage spending time looking for better images. Nicholasb07 (talk) 08:51, 23 March 2012 (UTC)

Radium

We already have quite a nice infobox picture of radium (as well as the radium watch-hand pictures in the article), and as far as I know, this is the only picture of the pure element itself. The only issue is that it is quite a low resolution. It was taken by this user, who unfortunately hasn't been on Wikipedia since 2010. You could try contacting him for a higher res picture, but this has already been done, and no reply was obtained. Until then, Google is our friend. Nicholasb07 (talk) 08:51, 23 March 2012 (UTC)

I would be very interested to find out exactly how this image was obtained. If the user ever returns to Wikipedia, we should try to find out. In my opinion, a non-free image that gives detailed information about how it was created is better than a free image that gives very little info (e.g. how did the user obtain the radium?) Double sharp (talk) 10:16, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Actinium

Actinium is likely to be one of two elements that will next recieve a picture. Actinium can be made in reasonable amounts, and has a decent half-life of 21 years. There is only one picture of anything actinium related so far, and it's an image of it's oxide. However, if it's oxide can be photographed, there's no reason why the metal can't. You can even buy actinium (albeit probably a microscopic amount) if you've got the cash (this is the only place I've found that sells it. All the other elements they sell have some form of picture). So it's just a matter of finding an image that's already out there (and I wouldn't mind betting there is, somewhere), or either waiting for an image to be created (anyone fancy buying some? Just kidding!) Nicholasb07 (talk) 08:51, 23 March 2012 (UTC)

Update: I think the actinium that the site sells is actually a compound (nitrate). Not important, but just don't go buying some :) Nicholasb07 (talk) 08:51, 23 March 2012 (UTC)

I'm unsure if this is a real image of Actinium [2]. I know we had this image (or one like it) in the infobox years ago. I'm assuming that we took it out for a reason; there's no source or anything on the page. However, Actinium has been noted to glow blue. The same website also has a better quality image of Radium (if it is indeed real). Most of the other images seem reliable (Tc, Fr, Pm₂O₃). Jacob S-589 (talk) 23:45, 25 September 2013 (UTC)

This image (http://science.energy.gov/np/highlights/2012/np-2012-07-a/) appears fairly reliable, more so than the one above, mainly because it gives an isotope (²²⁵Ac) and because it's a .gov site. Jacob S-589 (talk) 01:21, 7 October 2013 (UTC)

I don't trust webqc – no reliable sources were given. The other webpage seems very reliable. (I will upload it.) Double sharp (talk) 07:02, 7 October 2013 (UTC)

Uploaded at File:Actinium.jpg and inserted into the actinium infobox. Double sharp (talk) 12:54, 7 October 2013 (UTC)

Fermium

It was never expected that we would get a picture for fermium. It's the last element that can be produced macroscopically, but the chances of finding a picture were next to nothing. Still, I decided to email the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the world's largest producer of fermium, to see what they had. They replied saying they had one photo with the tag "fermium", but it was just a man working in a lab; there was no fermium at all in the image. I gave up hope... but a few days later, I got an email from another person, who had the email forwarded to him. He also said he had one picture, but this time, it was the real deal: he sent me this. It's an alloy of fermium with a rare earth, and there's so little fermium in it, you probably don't see any in the picture anyway. But it's a picture of a fermium alloy, so that's good enough for me. He said that had they collected all the fermium they had ever made, they may have been able to obtain an image. So, while I don't think this image can be improved, it may be worth emailing them once every 6 months or so to see if they ever end up producing an image, however unlikely that may be. Nicholasb07 (talk) 08:51, 23 March 2012 (UTC)

Transfermium elements

It isn't possible to get an image of a trans-fermium element because they can only be produced in microscopic amounts. A possible addition to the fermium article (the "Isotopes" section) is how the absence of beta-decaying Fm isotopes, sometimes known as the "fermium wall" (see [3]) prevents the formation of heavier elements by neutron capture. Double sharp (talk) 10:20, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Images

• commons:Category:Electron shell diagrams
  • commons:Electron shell: gallery page for a single set
  • commons:Electron shell - no label: gallery page for a single set (no label in image, reduced margin). Incomplete.

Related pages

• User:Raeky/ElementalFPs
• [4] & [5] & [6]
• [7]
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Elements/Periodic table (pictures) - a possible article