The elements of the first transition series

Although the transition metals have many general chemical similarities, each one has a detailed chemistry of its own. The closest relationships are usually to be found among the three elements in each vertical group in the periodic table, although within each group the element of the first series usually differs more from the other two than they differ from each other. Most of the first series elements are more familiar and technically important than the heavier members of their vertical group.

A few of the chemical trends to be found in the first transition series may be capsulized.

1. From titanium to manganese the highest oxidation state exhibited, which usually is found only in oxo compounds, fluorides, or chlorides, corresponds to the total number of 3d and 4s electrons in the atom. The stability of this highest oxidation state decreases from titanium in the +4 state to manganese in the +7 state. Following manganese—that is, for iron, cobalt, and nickel—oxidation states corresponding to the loss of all 3d and 4s electrons do not occur; higher oxidation states in general become progressively more difficult to attain because the increasing nuclear charge causes the 3d electrons to be more tightly bound. Very high oxidation states occur only for chromium (+5, +6 states), manganese (+5, +6, +7 states), and iron (+5, +6 states) and apart from the fluorides, such as chromium pentafluoride, CrF₅ (with chromium in the +5 state), and chromium hexafluoride, CrF₆ (with chromium in the +6 state), and oxofluorides such as manganese trioxide fluoride, MnO₃F (with manganese in the +7 state), the main chemistry in these oxidation states is that of oxo anions such as permanganate, MnO₄⁻ (+7 state); chromate, CrO₄²⁻ (+6 state); and ferrate, FeO₄²⁻ (+6 state). All of these compounds are powerful oxidizing agents.

2. The oxides of each element become more acidic with increasing oxidation number, and the halides become more covalent and susceptible to hydrolysis.

3. In the oxo anions characteristic of the higher oxidation states the metal atom is tetrahedrally surrounded by oxygen atoms, whereas in the oxides formed in the lower oxidation states the atoms are usually octahedrally coordinated.

4. In the oxidation states +2 and +3, complexes in aqueous solution or in crystals are usually four-, five- or six-coordinated.

5. Oxidation states lower than +2 are not found in the ordinary chemistries of the transition metals, except for copper. The lower oxidation states are, however, attainable for all the elements using ligands of the carbon monoxide type.

The elements of the second and third transition series

While the elements in the second and third transition series for a given group have chemical properties similar to those of the element in the first series, they nevertheless show definite differences from the lighter element of the group. The following examples illustrate this point: (1) Although cobalt (of the first series) forms a considerable number of tetrahedral and octahedral complexes in its +2 oxidation state, and that state is characteristic in ordinary aqueous chemistry, the +2 states of rhodium (second series) and iridium (third series) are rare and relatively unimportant. (2) The manganese ion Mn²⁺ is very stable and of principal importance in the chemistry of manganese, but for technetium and rhenium the oxidation state +2 is little more than a laboratory curiosity. (3) Chromium in its +3 state forms a great number of complexes, which make up one of the best known aspects of the chemistry of the element; whereas the +3 states of molybdenum and tungsten are not particularly stable states under any conditions and form only a few complexes. (4) The oxo anions of the first-row elements in their higher oxidation states—for example, chromate (with chromium in the +6 state) and permanganate (manganese, +7 state)—are powerful oxidizing agents the chemistry of which is essentially restricted to that function; whereas their stoichiometric analogues, such as molybdate (molybdenum, +6 state), tungstate (tungsten, +6 state), pertechnetate (technetium, +7 state), and perrhenate (rhenium, +7 state), are quite stable and have an extensive and diverse chemistry. There are, however, some cases in which quite valid and useful analogies can be found between the chemistry of the lighter element and the two heavier elements of the group. For instance, the chemistry of complexes of rhodium in the +3 state is, in general, quite similar to that of complexes of cobalt in the +3 state. On the whole, however, there are differences more consistently than there are similarities between the first element and the heavier elements of each group.

For the heavier transition metals, higher oxidation states are generally more stable than is the case for the elements in the first transition series; this is true not only, as has been mentioned, for the properties of the oxo anions but for the higher halides as well. Thus the heavier elements form compounds such as ruthenium oxide, RuO₄ (+8 state); tungsten chloride, WCl₆ (+6 state); platinum fluoride, PtF₆ (+6 state), etc., which have no analogues among the first-row elements, whereas the chemistry of aquo ions of lower oxidation states, especially +2 and +3, which is such a dominant part of the chemistry of the lighter elements, is relatively unimportant for most of the heavier ones.

One of the reasons for the generally close similarity in chemistry between the second and third transition series elements of a given group is the so-called lanthanoid contraction. As already described, the series of elements known as the lanthanoids comes between the second and third regular transition series and is formed by the filling of the 4f orbitals. The 5d and 6s orbitals, which are the valence-shell orbitals for the third transition series elements, are imperfectly shielded by the 4f electrons from the increased nuclear charge. There is consequently, a steady contraction in the size of these orbitals through the lanthanoid series of elements, with the net result that the atomic and ionic radii of hafnium, which immediately follows the lanthanoid series, are almost identical to the corresponding radii of the zirconium atom, which lies just above it in Group 4 (IVb). Because the zirconium and hafnium atoms have almost identical sizes as well as analogous electron configurations in all of their oxidation states, their chemistry and the properties of their compounds are exceedingly similar; indeed, it is very difficult to separate the two elements because of the great similarity in properties of their compounds. In moving along the third transition series, there is a steady but slow divergence in the properties of the second and third elements in each group so that, at the end, considerable differences exist between those of palladium and platinum and of silver and gold. The differences are not as great, however, as might have been expected had the lanthanoid contraction not intervened to preclude greater disparity in the orbital sizes. Although niobium and tantalum are not quite as similar as zirconium and hafnium, the differences between them are slight, and, similarly, molybdenum and tungsten, technetium and rhenium, ruthenium and osmium, and rhodium and iridium show marked similarities in their chemistries.