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Principles of chemical science, lecture 27: introduction to transition metals.

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A fundamental property of d-block metals (aka transition metals) is that they are predisposed to form coordination complexes, which have a metal in the middle that is surrounded by ions or atoms (aka ligands). These coordination complexes have special properties, which are described in detail in lectures 28 and 29. We also hear from Chemist Sarah Bowman about the importance of the d-block metal nickel.

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Related behind the scenes at mit videos.

Targeting Ulcer Causing H. pylori Bacteria

Sarah Bowman studies a protein from a pathogenic bacterium that is found in the stomach and is known to cause ulcers. She explains how the bacterium survives in the low pH environment of the stomach by using a nickel-dependent protein to buffer the acidity of its environment. Sarah envisions that taking advantage of this nickel requirement could lead to a new treatment for ulcers.

Sarah Bowman’s Personal Story

Sarah Bowman shares how she “changed her mind” about careers after completing her first bachelors degree in the humanities and taking a chemistry class that opened her eyes to the wonders of atoms and molecules. She urges people to pursue what they want to do, regardless of age.

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2.1.1: Introduction to transition metal complexes (coordination complexes)

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Transition metals are found in the middle of the periodic table. In addition to being found in the metallic state, they also form a range of compounds with different properties. Many of these compounds are ionic or network solids, but there are also some molecular compounds, in which different atoms are arranged around a metal ion. These compounds are called transition metal complexes or coordination complexes . They are often brightly-colored compounds and they sometimes play very useful roles as catalysts or even as pharmaceuticals.

Because of their relatively low electronegativity, transition metals are frequently found as positively-charged ions, or cations. These metal ions are not found by themselves, instead, they attract other ions or molecules to themselves. These species bind to the metal ions, forming coordination complexes.

Hexaamminecobalt(III) chloride, [Co(NH 3 ) 6 ]Cl 3 , is an example of a coordination complex. It is a yellow compound. The "complex" part refers to the fact that the compound has a bunch of different pieces. There is a cationic part, which itself is a moderately complicated structure, plus three chloride anions.

Cobalt with six NH3 groups bound to it, overall charge of +3. Three chlorine counterions are associated.

Potassium hexachloroplatinate, K 2 [PtCl 6 ], is another good example. It is another bright yellow compound. This time, the anion is the more complex part, and there are two potassium ions as well.

Platinum with six chlorine atoms bound to it, overall charge of -2. Two potassium counterions are associated.

The formulae for coordination complexes always give you hints about the structures. The stuff inside the square brackets always makes up one of the ions. In that part, there are a number of things attached to the transition metal. Those things attached to the transition metal are called ligands; we'll take a closer look at them later. The part outside the square brackets tells you what the counterions are; those are there to balance out the charge of the ion inside the square brackets.

Very often, the counterions are individual atomic ions, like chloride anions (Cl - ) or potassium cations (K + ). So, when you see the K 2 within the formula, the potassium atoms are not connected together; they are two separate potassium ions: 2 K + . Likewise, the Cl 3 at the end of a formula does not really mean a group of three chlorine atoms clustered together; they are three separate chloride ions, 3 x Cl - .

Sometimes, polyatomic ions that act as counterions to these complexes; this is especially common in the case of anions. Most often, they are oxoanions, in which an atom has some number of oxygens attached to it. A couple of the most common examples are nitrate (NO 3 - ) and sulfate (SO 4 2- ); these ions have been known for hundreds of years. Tetrafluoroborate (BF 4 - ) and hexafluorophosphate (PF 6 - ) are a couple of twentieth-century anions.

A number of common ions are listed in the table below. Most of them have a +1 or -1 charge. Sulfate is the only common example listed with a 2- charge.

Monoatomic anions: bromide, chloride, and iodide. Monoatomic cations: lithium, sodium, potassium. Polyatomic anions: sulfate, nitrate, perchlorate, chlorate, tetrafluoroborate, hexafluorophosphate.

Note that some of these structures use a charge-minimised Lewis structure. In third-row elements, these structures may contain additional bonds to the central atom, going past the octet, in order to lower the number of + and - charges. Sulfate and perchlorate can also be drawn as octet-obedient structures, in which the sulfur and chlorine have true octets, and charge separation occurs. However, hexafluorophosphate has no octet-obedient Lewis structure; regardless of how you draw it, the phosphorus has six bonds.

Exercise \(\PageIndex{1}\)

Draw the octet-obedient structures for (a) sulfate and (b) perchlorate.

Sulfate anion with two negatively-charged oxygens and two double bonded neutral oxygens. This resonates to a form with a +2 charge on sulfur and -1 charges on all oxygens, all single bonds.

Exercise \(\PageIndex{2}\)

Indicate the individual ions in the following complexes.

  • [Co(NH 3 ) 4 Cl 2 ]Cl
  • [Co(NH 3 ) 5 Cl]Cl 2
  • [Co(NH 3 ) 5 NO 2 ]Cl 2
  • [Co(NH 3 ) 5 OH 2 ]Cl 3
  • K 2 [PtCl 4 ]
  • Na 2 [Co(SCN) 4 ]
  • [Pt(NH 3 ) 2 (OH 2 ) 2 ](NO 3 ) 2
  • [Co(NH 3 ) 4 (OH 2 ) 2 ] 2 (SO 4 ) 3

Cobalt complex ion with two chlorines bonded and four amino groups, overall charge of +3. Three chloride counterions.

We haven't drawn proper Lewis structures for these coordination complexes so far. For the hexachloroplatinate complex, the Lewis structure is shown below:

Platinum complex ion with six chlorine groups, overall charge of -2. Two potassium counterions.

The electron accounting looks like this:

Two electrons for each bond takes up 12 electrons. That leaves 42 more. If each chlorine gets three lone pairs, that uses up another 36 electrons. There are six left, and they could be left on the platinum.

That is a lot of electrons. But remember where platinum sits in the periodic table: it's a transition metal. How many electrons does the next noble gas have? Eighteen: that's radon. This structure works out perfectly in terms of reaching a noble gas configuration.

For another example, let's take a look at the cobalt complex.

Cobalt complex ion with six amino groups, overall charge of +3. Three chloride counterions.

This time, the electron counting looks like:

A dozen of those electrons get used for the six Co-N bonds, leaving 42 more. We need another 36 for the eighteen N-H bonds; that leaves six electrons. We can just put those on the cobalt, like last time.

Each nitrogen ends up with its octet (eight electrons in four bonds). Each hydrogen has its "octet" (two electrons in a bond, corresponding to helium's noble gas configuration. Cobalt also gets its "octet" (eighteen electrons corresponding to krypton's noble gas configuration).

These are still really big, unwieldy numbers. We need a simplification. We won't really count up all of the electrons in coordination complexes because they tend to be assembled from pre-existing parts (the "ligands") that already have their octets. The ligands are just donating their electrons to the metal in the center. Instead, we focus on that metal, and see how many electrons it has once all of the ligands have been attached.

Also, notice that in the Lewis structure of the cobalt complex, we neglected the formal charges. That's actually common practice with transition metal complexes. The reason for that is simply that the structure is getting pretty crowded with all the lone pairs and formal charges. Normally, in order to simplify an already complicated structure, the lone pairs on the transition metal and the formal charges are not shown.

Cobalt complex ion with six protonated amino groups, overall charge of +3. Three chloride counterions.

On the next page, we will practice electron counting some more. We will also take a look at some common ligands: the pieces that are directly attached to the transition metal ions.

See a more in-depth discussion of coordination complexes in a later course.

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  1. Transition Metals Definition, List and Properties

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COMMENTS

  1. Transition metal

    transition metal, any of various chemical elements that have valence electrons—i.e., electrons that can participate in the formation of chemical bonds—in two shells instead of only one.

  2. 8.1: Chemistry of the Transition Metals

    A transition metal is one that forms one or more stable ions which have incompletely filled d orbitals. On the basis of this definition, scandium and zinc do not count as transition metals - even though they are members of the d block. Scandium has the electronic structure [Ar] 3d 1 4s 2.

  3. 19.1: Properties of Transition Metals and Their Compounds

    For example, in 2014, researchers were successful in synthesizing a new oxidation state of iridium (9+). Figure 19.1.4 :Transition metals of the first transition series can form compounds with varying oxidation states. Scandium has oxidation state of positive 3. Titanium has values of positive 3 and 4.

  4. Transition metal

    In chemistry, a transition metal (or transition element) is a chemical element in the d-block of the periodic table (groups 3 to 12), though the elements of group 12 (and less often group 3) are sometimes excluded. The lanthanide and actinide elements (the f-block) are called inner transition metals and are sometimes considered to be transition ...

  5. Oxidation States of Transition Metals

    The oxidation state of an element is related to the number of electrons that an atom loses, gains, or appears to use when joining with another atom in compounds. It also determines the ability of an atom to oxidize (to lose electrons) or to reduce (to gain electrons) other atoms or species. Almost all of the transition metals have multiple ...

  6. Transition Metals

    TRANSITION METALS CONCEPT By far the largest family of elements is the one known as the transition metals, sometimes called transition elements. These occupy the "dip" in the periodic table between the "tall" sets of columns or groups on either side. ... The reader is encouraged to consult the Electrons essay, as well as the essay on Families ...

  7. Lecture 27: Introduction to Transition Metals

    A fundamental property of d-block metals (aka transition metals) is that they are predisposed to form coordination complexes, which have a metal in the middle that is surrounded by ions or atoms (aka ligands). These coordination complexes have special properties, which are described in detail in lectures 28 and 29.

  8. Transition Metals

    Transition Metals: Periodic Table Location. The transition metals are located towards the middle of the periodic table between the highly reactive metals and the noble gases. Specifically, groups ...

  9. Application of Transition Metals

    1. Transition metals are applied in the organic reactions. Transition metals complex under goes a series of reactions that are generally unlike those main group compounds. The most fundamental is the simple coordination and dissociation of ligands. Dissociation may also be achieved by destruction of a ligand.

  10. The Effects Of Transition Metals

    725 Words 3 Pages. Transition metals, such as iron, copper, zinc, nickel, and cobalt, play vital roles in numerous. 67 biological processes. Because of these metals' unique redox and inorganic chemical properties, 68 they either serve as catalytic centers for enzymatic reactions or contribute to overall protein. 69 stability.

  11. Transition Metals: Chromium

    Transition Metals: Chromium. Chromium has an atomic number of 24, and is considered to be a transition metal. It has an atomic mass of 51.996 amu, a melting point of 1907 degrees Celsius (2180 K, 3465 degrees Fahrenheit), and a boiling point of 2671 degrees Celsius (2944 K, 4840 degrees Fahrenheit). This element is the first element within group 6.

  12. Use of Transition Metals in Nanotechnology

    2.2.4: Cobalt. The nanoparticle films of transition metals such as iron, nickel, or cobalt may be used to catalyse the growth of carbon nanotube. The Nickel or Cobalt nanotubes with larger diameters (around 160 nm) show a nearly isotropic magnetic moments arranged in a vortex state at zero field.

  13. Transition Metals Essay Example

    Transition Metals 1a) The d-orbitals of a free transition metal atom or ion are degenerate (all have the same energy. ) However, when transition metals form coordination complexes, the d-orbitals of the metal interact with the electron cloud of the ligands in such a manner that the d-orbitals become non-degenerate (not all having the same energy.

  14. 2.1.1: Introduction to transition metal complexes (coordination

    These compounds are called transition metal complexes or coordination complexes. They are often brightly-colored compounds and they sometimes play very useful roles as catalysts or even as pharmaceuticals. Because of their relatively low electronegativity, transition metals are frequently found as positively-charged ions, or cations. These ...

  15. Transition Metals: An Overview

    The transition metals have the following properties in common: they form coloured compounds they are good conductors of heat and electricity they can be hammered or bent into shape easily they are less reactive than alkali metals such as sodium they have high melting points - but mercury is a liquid at room temperature they are usually hard and ...

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    Instead, it splits them into two groups.The diagram shows the arrangement of the d electrons in a Cu2+ion before and after six water molecules bond with it.Whenever 6 ligands are arranged around a transition metal ion, the d orbitals are always split into 2 groups in this way - 2 with a higher energy than the other 3.The size of the energy gap b...

  17. Properties of Transition Metals

    The paper "Properties of Transition Metals" presents the agents that possess the features of metals, hence the reason why they are regarded as transition metals. These elements possess an incompleted shell. This definition excludes cadmium, Zinc, and mercury from the list of transition metals…

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