Year 13 - The general properties of transition metals

Question 1

List the definition of a transition metal.

Answer 1

The formal definition: can form at least on stable ion with a partly full d - shell.

Question 2

List some properties of the titanium to copper transition metals.

Answer 2

Good conductors of heat and electricity, hard strong and shiny and have high melting and boiling points, fairly unreactive.

Question 3

Which two elements have an electron configuration which doesn’t fit the pattern.

Answer 3

The arrangement of chromium and copper are different to the rest as they choose to fill up their inner 3d sub levels before their 4s2 sub shell. Chromium (3d54s1) chooses to have a half full d shell before it fills the s shell and copper (3d104s1) chooses to fill the 3d sub shell before it fills the 4s one.

Question 4

What are the chemical properties of a transition metal.

Answer 4

There are four main features which are common to all transition elements:
1 - They all have VARIABLE OXIDATION STATES
2 - The majority of them are COLOURED
3 - Many can be used as CATALYSTS, eg the use of iron in the Haber process
4 - They are able to form COMPLEXES (when a transition metal ion is surrounded by ligands)