Question

Metals that can have multiple charges?

Answer 1

answer : yes, metals can have multiple charges.

Examples : Fe+2 , Fe+3. Cr+2 . Cr+3

Explanation :

The transitional metals can have multiple oxidation numbers because of how their electrons are arranged. It's all got to do with electron shells

Iron's electron configuration is: 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 4s2 3d6

The thing to note is that the 4s subshell is actually outside of the 3d subshell - so the 4s subshell can very easily be the first to lose electrons.

Thus, you have an Fe2+, or Iron(II).

The 3d subshell can, in theory, hold 10 electrons. It's most stable when it is has 5 or 10 electrons, not any other number. So once the "protective" 4s subshell is emptied, the somewhat-unstable 3d subshell is exposed. It will lose one electron to be oxidized to a more stable version.

So, you get Fe3+, or Iron(III).

Iron is also somewhat stable in an 5+ version. Though I don't know, my guess would be that in that case, it loses the 2 4s electrons, and three from 3d.