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What's lighter than air and doesn't like to be alone?
To talk about fuel cells, we need to talk about chemistry. Here’s a quick refresher.
The Periodic Table of the Elements is a method of organizing all the elements identified by scientists. Elements in the Periodic Table are the smallest recognizable building blocks of all matter in the universe.
Click to see a larger version of the Periodic Table.
The Periodic Table organizes 112 elements according to how they look and act. There are many web sites that explain how the Periodic Table is organized, including www.chem4kids.com. Several European scientists developed the Periodic Table in the 1860s. These scientists include French geologist A. E. Béguyer de Chancourtois, British analytical chemist John A. R. Newlands, Russian chemist Dmitrii I. Mendeleev, and German chemist Lothar Meyer.
 Hydrogen is the first element in the Periodic Table because it is the lightest. The hydrogen atom consists of one proton in the nucleus and one electron in one shell. The first shell of an atom is full when it has two electrons. Because the first shell really wants to have two electrons, hydrogen always looks to bond with another atom to complete its shell. This is why hydrogen gas is represented as H2. It is always bonded to itself or to something else to complete its outer shell.
Hydrogen is usually found in a gaseous form. It turns to liquid at about –253 degrees Celsius or –423 degrees Fahrenheit.
Here are some other useful links to brush up on chemistry:
Chemistry
Hydrogen and energy
Note: This image of the Periodic Table is copyright-protected, and has been provided courtesy of M. Ruskin Co. LLC / "Painless Learning Placemats."
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