What is the primary reason for the color of transition metal complexes?
Practice Questions
Q1
What is the primary reason for the color of transition metal complexes?
Presence of unpaired electrons
Crystal field splitting
Ligand field theory
All of the above
Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions
What is the primary reason for the color of transition metal complexes?
Correct Answer: The color of transition metal complexes arises from the presence of unpaired electrons and the crystal field splitting of d-orbitals.
Step 1: Understand that transition metals have d-orbitals, which are specific areas where electrons can be found.
Step 2: Know that in transition metal complexes, these d-orbitals can split into different energy levels when surrounded by other atoms or molecules (this is called crystal field splitting).
Step 3: Realize that the presence of unpaired electrons in these d-orbitals is important because they can absorb certain wavelengths of light.
Step 4: When light is absorbed, the remaining light that is not absorbed is what we see as color.
Step 5: Therefore, the color of the transition metal complex is determined by the specific wavelengths of light absorbed due to the arrangement of unpaired electrons and the energy difference between the split d-orbitals.
