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Matt Carruthers Variability and relative stability of oxidation states In this essay the concentration will be on the oxidation states of the transition metals rather than the entire periodic table. An oxidation state is a number assigned to an element in a compound according to some rules. This number enables us to describe oxidation-reduction reactions, and balancing redox chemical reactions. Compared to Group II elements such as calcium, transition elements form ions with a wide variety of oxidation states. Calcium ions typically don't lose more than two electrons, whereas transition metals can lose up to nine. The energies required to remove electrons from calcium are low until you try to remove electrons from below its outer two s orbitals. In fact Ca3+ has an ionisation enthalpy so high that it rarely occurs naturally. However a transition element like vanadium has roughly linear increasing ionisation enthalpies throughout its s and d orbitals, due to...

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