3/12/2012 - Synthesis and Predicted Properties of Tetraethylgermanium

     Sorry for my week long absence, I was quite busy with my girlfriend visiting me during her spring break, and combined with my injury, I didn't feel up to writing in my blogs.  I did, however, start playing around with a Wordpress blog that I just created.  I am loving their integration with LaTeX in the blog capabilities, and right now I am wishing that I had gone with Wordpress instead of Blogger.  The blog I started is just a blog where I intend to record down what I have been learning in my studies in order to help me in my memory of the subjects.
     As for the continuation of the organometallic history, in 1971 Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev set off to organize the periodic table in according to their physical properties (both atomic weight and valence).  In this certain test where he knew the properties for Si(C₂H₅)₄ and Sn(C₂H₅)₄, and knew that there was an element below Silicon and above Tin, he could predict the properties of the organometallic of Ekasilicon Eka-Si(C₂H₅)₄ (later named Ge(C₂H₅)₄). The properties predicted were the density and the boiling point, and the predictions were only 0.03 points below the actual density and 3.5 degrees C below the actual boiling point.

Tetraethylgermanium