Transition Metal Ion Formation

Ionic and Metallic Bonding

Transition Metal Ion Formation

  • Describe the formation of transition metal ions.

Elemental groupings in the periodic table

How do transition metals form ions?

The transition metals are an interesting and challenging group of elements.  They have perplexing  patterns of electron distribution that don’t always follow the electron filling rules.  Predicting how they will form ions is also not always obvious.

Transition Metal Ions

Transition metals belong to the d block, meaning that the d sublevel of electrons is in the process of being filled with up to ten electrons.  Many transition metals cannot lose enough electrons to attain a noble-gas electron configuration.  In addition,  the majority of transition metals are capable of adopting ions with different charges.  Iron, which forms either the Fe 2+ or Fe 3+ ions, loses electrons as shown below.

& text{Fe} quad qquad rightarrow quad text{Fe}^{2+} quad + quad 2text{e}^-\& [text{Ar}]3d^64s^2 quad quad [text{Ar}]3d^6\& text{Fe} quad qquad rightarrow quad text{Fe}^{3+} quad + quad 3text{e}^-\& [text{Ar}]3d^64s^2 quad quad [text{Ar}]3d^5

According to the Aufbau process, the electrons fill the 4 s sublevel before beginning to fill the 3 d sublevel.  However, the outermost s electrons are always the first to be removed in the process of forming transition metal cations.  Because most transition metals have two valence electrons, the charge of 2+ is a very common one for their ions.  This is the case for iron above.  A half-filled dsublevel ( d 5 ) is particularly stable, which is the result of an iron atom losing a third electron.

Picture of rust, iron oxide, as well as iron sulfate

Figure 8.5

A. Rust is a complex combination of oxides of iron(III), among them iron(III) oxide, Fe 2 O 3 . B. Iron(II) sulfate, FeSO 4 , has been known since ancient times as green vitriol and was used for centuries in the manufacture of inks.

Some transition metals that have relatively few d electrons may attain a noble-gas electron configuration.  Scandium is an example.

& text{Sc} quad quad rightarrow qquad text{Sc}^{3+} quad + quad 3text{e}^-\& [text{Ar}]3d^14s^2 qquad [text{Ar}]

Others may attain configurations with a full d sublevel, such as zinc and copper.

& text{Zn} quad quad rightarrow qquad text{Zn}^{2+} quad + quad 2text{e}^-\& [text{Ar}]3d^{10}4s^2 qquad [text{Ar}]3d^{10}\& text{Cu} quad quad rightarrow qquad text{Cu}^+ quad + quad text{e}^-\& [text{Ar}]3d^{10}4s^1 qquad [text{Ar}]3d^{10}

The resulting configuration above, with 18 electrons in the outermost principal energy level, is referred to as a pseudo noble-gas electron configuration .  It gives particular stability to the Zn 2+ and Cu + ions.

Summary

  • Transition metal ion formation is more complex than simple cation formation.
  • Transition metal ions often involve rearrangements of both d and s electrons.

Practice

Answer the questions in Atomic Structure: Transition Metal Ions.

Review

Questions

  1. What block do the transition metals fall in?
  2. Which sublevel is filled first?
  3. Which sublevel loses electrons first?
  4. What is the pseudo noble-gas electron configuration?
  • pseudo noble-gas electron configuration:  18 electrons in the outermost principal energy level.
  • transition metal:  Metals whose  d sublevels are in the process of filling to ten electrons.