A previous post looked at the colours of transition metals, and the origin of their colours – this graphic, on the other hand, looks at how transition metals (and some non-transition metals) can be identified by the precipitates they form with sodium hydroxide and ammonia solutions. I’m going to keep the explanation of the reasons for the colour changes and precipitates fairly simple here, but I’ve provided links at the bottom of the page if you want to read about them in more detail.
This graphic looks at the colours of transition metal ions when they are in aqueous solution (in water), and also looks at the reason why we see coloured compounds and complexes for transition metals. This helps explain, for example, why rust (iron oxide) is an orange colour, and why the Statue of Liberty, made of copper, is no longer the shiny, metallic orange of copper, but a pale green colour given by the compound copper carbonate.
This graphic looks at some general properties of the transition metals – I had a little less space to work with than with the previous graphics, on account of the large number of elements that the transition metals encompass, but hopefully what’s included is still of use.
