Talbica 3
Talbica is a chemical toolset that includes the Periodic table, reaction solver and a database of chemical reactions. Talbica exists in the form of a website and mobile applications.
Talbica is a winner of many prestigious international design awards.
Visually compelling and immensely resourceful. The organization of the information, the color distribution, and the effortlessly responsive interaction intertwine design and user experience flawlessly. I wish I had access to such a tool during my high school.
The professional press wrote about the project.
Chapter one. Periodic table
The central part of the app is the Periodic table. Science recognizes 118 chemical elements. All of them are presented in a form of a table, which was invented more than 100 years ago. Talbica uses the full version of the table, because it is the one that is considered the most universal and easy to use. In schools, a short form is widely used, where some periods take 2 rows.
Each element in the table is supplied with general properties: number, symbol, name and atomic weight. The weight of unstable radioactive elements is put within square brackets. Periods and groups are annotated in the table.
Unlike most other periodic tables, Talbica uses modern typography bases on “Open Sans” family. Element properties are aligned to the left, which makes it easier to read them. Compare it to the schoolbooks, where the number is aligned either to the left or to the right, depending on the period.
Distinct, vivid colors are chosen for the different element types.
The electronic version of the Period table differs from the printed one. On the screen, it is possible to present way more information about the elements.
A click on an element opens an information card. The card contains more than 70 properties, which are split into categories.
Talbica provides the most detailed database of the chemical properties. Boiling and melting temperatures, oxidation states, density, conductivity and resistivity – all these properties are essential for school and university students. Spectral lines, list of radioactive isotopes, abundance in the Earth’s crust – these are interesting data for researchers and enthusiasts.
The “Summary” section of the information card contains basic element properties: number, symbol, name, atomic weight, discovery history, plus the position in the table: period, group, subgroup and type.
The “Atomic properties” section exposes an animated Bohr’s atomic model, electronic configuration, number of electrons, protons and neutrons inside the atomic core, and atomic radiuses.
The “Thermal properties” section contains: phase at normal conditions, melting and boiling temperatures, heats of fusion and vaporization. The “Material properties” section offers such parameters as density, molar volume, sound speed, thermal expansion and conductivity, three kinds of hardness and three types of modulus, and the Poisson ratio.
From the section named “Electromagnetic properties” user can extract information about resistivity and conductivity, Curie point, and see the spectral lines. The “Chemical properties” section will tell about oxidation states, electronegativity and electron affinity, and also provide information about three ionization energies.
The concluding sections: “Abundance” – is where the percent in the Earth’s crust, Sun, human body and meteorites can be found, and “Nuclear properties”, which includes information on isotopes and their nuclear weight.
All types of crystal structures are drawn for Talbica.
The melting and boiling temperature can be converted between Celsius, Kelvin and Fahrenheit scales right in the place.
The melting and boiling points are represented as a candle on a scale from absolute zero to the surface temperature of the Sun. The infographic gives an idea of how resistant the element is to high temperatures.
Three types of radii: atomic, covalent and Van der Waals are presented in the form of a diagram that clearly explains their meaning.
The Periodic table is based on the Periodic law, that declares element properties are in the periodical dependency on their atomic core charge. Or, simply, as Dmitry Mendeleev used to said: element properties depend on atomic weight.
Talbica allows to feel the Periodic law. It has a built-in set of heat maps. For instance, user can active a heat map of boiling temperatures and see how it changes within periods and groups. The blue elements boil at the lower temperatures, the red ones at higher.
Talbica includes 9 heat maps for the following properties: melting and boiling temperatures, density, atomic radius, electronegativity, atomic weight, abundance in the Earth’s crust and the Universe, and half-life period.
Each heat map fills elements with its own palette, which makes Talbica an incredibly descriptive and vivid tool for chemistry infographics.
Chapter two. Chemical compounds
Talbica database contains 4600 chemical compounds from the primitive non-organic substances like sulfuric acid to the complex organic compounds like cyclohexanol and melatonin.
To use the database, just type a chemical formula in the search field. If the compound is found in the database, a button “Show Info” will appear. Click on it or press “Enter“.
Talbica provides about 25 properties for each compound, including molecular weight, melting and boiling temperatures, pH level, solubility in different solutions, complexity, color and odor.
Many compounds are equipped with 3D molecular model, which can be rotated and scaled with mouse. The more complex the compound, the more interesting its chemical structure.
Talbica can provide information on some complex compounds, which are used in medicine, for example, melatonin – the hormone of sleep.
Chapter three. Chemical reactions
Talbica has a built-in database of more than 13 thousands chemical reactions.
This part of the app is dedicated for the chemist students of the higher grades, laboratory workers and professional chemists. The database solves the problem of choosing the reagents for synthesis of compounds and substitutes multi-paged books of reference.
When a chemical formula is typed in the search field, a list of chemical reactions opens, split into two columns. Reactions, where the requested formula is found within reactants, are shown in the left column; within products – in the right.
One can input not only a certain formula, but a part of a reaction. Talbica will automatically find the most appropriate reactions. It is a chemical calculator.
The necessary reaction can be clicked or chosen with keyboard arrows and “Enter” key. When selected, an information about the reaction opens, which includes reagents properties and reaction conditions. The reaction is already balanced, and the information for every reagents is provided below.
If a reaction is not in the database, but both parts of it are known, Talbica can equate it and find coefficients.
Photos of the elements
Licensed photos of about 90 elements have been purchased for Talbica — all of them that can be photographed at all. The rest disintegrate in a fraction of a second.
High-resolution photos are incredibly beautiful, detailed and interesting. They can be viewed for hours. Talbica is a stunningly visual tool for studying chemistry.
The photos are very different from the laconic style of the Table, so a special photo mode was invented. In this mode, the monotonous colors of the elements are replaced with miniature photos, and instead of a white background, an animation of a flight through space is turned on.
Why space? Well, we’re all from outer space. And chemical elements too.
In the photo mode, the Table uses the graphic capabilities to the maximum, using background blur and a special color palette.
Dark mode
Talbica supports dark mode. Heat maps and 3D models look outstanding on the black background.
Dark mode activates if selected in the device settings.
