The colour of transition metal ion is attributed to:

Options

A. exceptionally small size of cations
B. absorption of ultraviolet rays
C. incomplete (n-1) d-subshell
D. absorption of infrared radiation

Answer

C

Explanation

The colour of the compounds of transition metals may be attibuted to the presence of incomplete `(n-1)d-` sub-shell . Under the influence of approaching ions toward the central metal ion, the d-orbitals of the central metal split into different energy level. this phenomenon is called crystal field splitting. In the case of the transition metal ions, the electron can be easily promoted from one energy level to other in the same d-sub-shell. these are called d-d transitions. The amount of energy required to excite some of the electrons to higher energy state within the same d-sub-shell corresponds to energy of certain colours of visible light. Therefore, when white light falls on a tranistion metal compound, some ot its energy corresponding to a certain colour, is absorbed and the electron gets raised from lower energy set of orbitals to higher energy set of orbitals.