How many transition metals actually have used more than 8 valence electrons? Does #"Ag"# have 11 valence electrons or 1 or what?
1 Answer
In terms of actual valence electrons, there is literally only one example. You can consider that their oxidation states have never gotten higher than
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oxidation_states_of_the_elements
In terms of electrons listed after the noble gas shorthand, note that that's not a good indication of how many valence electrons there would be in a particular transition metal.
SILVER
No, silver does not have any more than
We only count valence electrons as those electrons that are important in chemical bonding (here, the one
#[Kr] 4d^10 5s^1#
We never see silver with an oxidation state higher than
This is because the
Hence, it only uses one valence electron in most if not all cases.
IRIDIUM
Iridium is a strange example that has
#[stackrel(color(blue)(+9))"Ir"stackrel(" "color(blue)(-2))("O"_4)]^(+)# .
The atomic electron configuration of
#[Xe] 6s^color(blue)(2) 4f^14 5d^color(blue)(7)#
Don't get fooled --- there are not
However, its
Using all
Endnotes