All practice pages/Interatomic theory/Elements
Element 23, a transition metal
A metal named for a goddess of beauty because its compounds come in so many colors, and the element that toughened the steel of the Model T.
Period 4, group 5. The other transition metals are tinted, and every cell opens its own article.
Vanadium has 23 electrons, one for every proton, so the atom carries no charge. Below are the same 23 electrons written two ways.
1s² 2s² 2p⁶ 3s² 3p⁶ 3d³ 4s²
Short form: [Ar] 3d³ 4s², where [Ar] stands for the 18 electrons argon already has.
That list runs by shell. In the order the subshells fill it reads [Ar] 4s² 3d³, because a subshell fills by its energy, not by its shell number.
The simple form counts electrons shell by shell. The orbital form says which subshell each one sits in: s holds 2, p holds 6, d holds 10 and f holds 14. Shell 3 here is 3s² 3p⁶ 3d³, and 2 + 6 + 3 is 11.
Vanadium sits in period 4 and has 4 shells. The period number counts the shells.
The outer shell holds 2 electrons. Those are the ones vanadium can lose, gain or share, so they are the ones that decide what it bonds with.
Vanadium gives up two to five electrons, and each state has its own color in solution, from violet through green and blue to yellow. That rainbow is where its name came from.
Spread through more than 60 minerals, including vanadinite and carnotite, and through iron ores. It is also concentrated in crude oil, coal and oil sands, and some sea squirts store it in their blood. China, Russia and South Africa produce most of it.
Andrés Manuel del Río found it in a Mexican lead ore in 1801, but was persuaded that his discovery was only impure chromium. Nils Gabriel Sefström rediscovered it in Swedish iron in 1830 and named it after Vanadís, a name of the Norse goddess Freyja, for its colorful compounds.
About 85% goes into steel, where a fraction of a percent makes tough, shock-resistant tool steel, axles and gears; Henry Ford used vanadium steel in the Model T. Vanadium pentoxide is the catalyst for making sulfuric acid, and vanadium flow batteries store energy for power grids.
Vanadium pentoxide dust irritates the lungs and eyes.