Each LEGO® brick in the following periodic table links to building instructions for a model of the solid state structure for that element. (We are still looking for some of the structures, so some of the the links are not yet complete. Let us know if you have information that can help us.)
The colors of the bricks represent different types of elements:
The small blue bricks are the number of valence electrons for the neutral form of that element (main group elements only).
Ellis, A. B.; Geselbracht, M. J.; Jonson, B. J.; Lisensky, G. C.; Robinson, W.R. Teaching General Chemistry: A Material Science Companion, Oxford University Press 1993.
WebElements, the Periodic Table on the www: http://www.webelements.com/webelements/scholar/index.html
Center fo Computationnal Material Science: http://cst-www.nrl.navy.mil/
Exploring the Nanoworld with LEGO Bricks | Education and Outreach | MRSEC Nanostructured Interfaces
Copyright 1998-2006 by the University of Wisconsin - Madison Materials Research Science and Engineering Center for Nanostructured Materials and Interfaces, Board of Trustees of Bradley University. All rights reserved. This project was supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Foundation. LEGO and DACTA are trademarks of the LEGO group and are used with special permission. © 2006 the LEGO group. The illustrations in these experiments are used here with special permission.