To what extent do the electronic configurations, decide the stability of oxidation states in the first series of the transition elements? Illustrate your answer with examples.

Explanation

The presence of half filled or completely filled orbitals impart stability to a particular elemtn/ion. Greater the number of such orbitals, more will be the relative stability. For example, let us write the different oxidation states of Mn(Z=25) along with the electronic configuration.
`Mn:[Ar]3d^(5)4s^(2),Mn^(2+),[Ar]3d^(5),Mn^(3+),[Ar]3d^(4),Mn^(4+),[Ar]3d^(3)`
+2 oxidation state of the element is likely to be the most stable because the corresponding electronic configuration of `Mn^(2+)` is highly symmetrical ( all the five 3d- orbitals are half filled).