Illustrate by taking examples of transition elements and non-transition elements that oxidation states of elements are largely based on electronic configuration.

Explanation

Oxidation state depends upon the tendency to lose or gain electrons to form negatively or positively charged ions. It is the charge which an atom of the element has on its ion or appears to have when present in the combined state with other atoms. The actual sign and its magnitude depends upon the electronic configuration of the atoms. For nontransition elements, the oxidation state is equal to the number of electrons present in the outermost shell or eight minus the number of electrons present in the outermost shell. For example, s-block elements have either +1 (alkali metals) or +2 (alkaline earth metals) because they have 1 and 2 electrons respectively in their outermost shells and can lose these electrons. The p-block elements show positive, negative or even zero oxidation states. For example, elements of group 13 have three electrons in the valence shell and therefore, can show +3 oxidation state. In addition, they can also show +1 oxidation state by losing only one electron from porbitals. For example, TI shows +1 oxidation state. Similarly, group 14 elements can exhibit +4 and +2 oxidation states and group 15 elements can exhibit a minimum oxidation state of -3 and maximum oxidation state of +5. The transition elements (d-block) and inner transition elementa (f-block) also show variable oxidation states depending upon the outermost electronic configurations. But unlike p-block elements, the variable oxidation states of transition and inner transition elements arise due to involvement of electrons in outermost orbitals as well as inner d. or f-electrons. For example, manganese (Z = 25) show oxidation states of +1, +2, +3, +4, +5, +6 and +7. All these oxidation states of non-transition elements and transition elementa depend upon the electronic configurations of the atoms.