What is Element Properties?

What part of the atom imparts the physical and chemical properties of that element?

• Is there any theory that attempts to explain why a certain element is the way it is. Conductivity, element structure, reactivity etc are all explained with electrons bad it's configuration. Does the nucleus influence these properties apart from influencing the number of electrons?

• Answer:

  Most chemical and physical properties (save mass) are due to what element the atom is, determined by protons and electrons. The neutrons make far less difference. For heavy atoms usually none but atom mass, unless there are too many neutrons or too few. See: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotope