The metals that we meet most often in everyday life are found in the middle block of the periodic table. Iron, copper, tungsten, cobalt, nickel, platinum, to name but a few, these all belong to a block known as the transition metals. These metals are quite unlike the ones we find in group 1 of the periodic table, such as sodium and potassium, which in other videos you will have seen are soft, low melting and highly reactive metals.
Most transition metals are similar to each other in that they have high melting points and a much lower chemical reactivity, as well as producing compounds that are brightly coloured. For example, if we compare potassium with six typical transition metals, pause the video if you wish to study the table for longer. Notice how the transition metals are similar to one another, but quite different to a typical Group 1 metal. Their greater strength and hardness makes these metals an obvious choice for making things that will also resist reaction with both water and oxygen in the environment.
This is the compound potassium chloride. This is copper chloride. The 2 just tells you that we're looking at the Cu2 positive ion.
This is because copper, like all the other transition metals, can exist in more than one ionic form, unlike group 1 metals which can only be found as positive 1 ions, like potassium in potassium chloride. As potassium chloride has no colour and copper chloride is a blue-green colour, it's reasonable to assume that the colour is caused by the presence of the copper-positive-2-ion. Indeed, all simple compounds of transition metals are highly coloured, unlike those of group I, which are all white.
One additional property of transition elements, as already mentioned, is that they can form ions with different charges. Copper for example can also make copper chloride, where copper is a positive one ion and not positive two. This has a slightly different colour to copper chloride.
Manganese can form ions with a positive 2, positive 3, positive 4, positive 6 and positive 7 charge and all show a different color in its compounds. The reason why these metals can do this is beyond the scope of this video, so you may wish to research it yourself. So in summary, transition metals all have similar and very useful physical and chemical properties.
Their atoms can form ions with a variable charge, which also gives them a range of colours in their compounds. If you liked the video give it a thumbs up and don't forget to subscribe. Comment below if you have any questions. Why not check out our Fusical app as well? Until next time!