CBSE Test Paper-01

Class - 12 Chemistry (The d– & f- Block Elements)

1. Oxidation state of Mn in is +7 indicating all electrons paired in Mn but

is coloured. This is due to:
a. none of these
b. both presence of unpaired electron in d-orbital in oxygen and charge transfer
c. presence of unpaired electron in d-orbital in oxygen
d. charge transfer

2. In dilute alkaline solution, MnO4- changes to

a. MnO 2-
4

b. MnO2

c. Mn2O3
d. MnO
3. Zr and Hf have almost equal atomic and ionic radii because
a. Both belong to same transition series
b. Of lanthanoid contraction
c. Of diagonal relationship
d. Of actinoid contraction
4. Silver is refined by cupellation process. The process removes the impurity of
a. Au
b. Pb
c. Cu
d. Pt
5. The compound which is widely used as a white pigment is
a. ZnO

b. Al2O3

c. PbCO3

d. CaCO3
6. Write the outer electronic configuration of Cr atom(Z= 24).

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 7. Name the lanthanoid element which exhibits a + 4 oxidation state besides +3
oxidation state?

8. Why is KMnO4 kept in dark bottles?

9. Calculate the 'spin only' magnetic moment of M2+ (aq) ion (Z= 27).

10. Give some of the uses of KMnO4 .

11. In what way is the electronic configuration of the transition elements different from
that of the non-transition elements?

12. What is the lanthanoid contraction? What are its causes and consequences?

13. Calculate the 'spin only' magnetic moment of ion (Z = 27).

14. Explain the following facts:

a. Transition metals act as catalysts.
b. Chromium group elements have the higher melting points in their respective
series.
c. Transition metals form coloured complexes.
15. a. Give balanced chemical equations of two reactions in which KMnO 4 acts as an

oxidizing agent in acidic medium.

b. Give reason:

i. Cr2+ is a strong reducing agent whereas Mn2+ is not (Cr = 24, Mn = 25)

ii. The transition metal ions such as Cu+, Ag+ and Sc3+ are colourless
iii. Chemistry of the actinoids is much more complicated than that of the
lanthanoids.

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 CBSE Test Paper-01
Class - 12 Chemistry (The d– & f- Block Elements)
Solutions

1. d. charge transfer

Explanation: The oxidation state of Mn in MnO4- is +7. Which means that Mn

does not have any unpaired d-electrons left. However, MnO4- is deep purple in

colour because of charge transfer from the ligand (O2-) to the metal center. This

is called a ligand-to-metal charge transfer.

2. b. MnO2

Explanation: In alkaline medium, reduction of MnO4- take place to form

MnO2. The chemical equation for this change is given below as:

MnO4-(aq) + 2H2O(l) + 3e- → MnO2(s)+ 4OH-(aq)

3. b. Of lanthanoid contraction
Explanation: As after lanthanum, electron filling take place in f-subshell.
Electrons present in f-subshell didn't do good shielding due to which with the
increasing atomic number or increasing effective nuclear charge size gets
constricted and size of Hf and Zr becomes almost equal.

4. b. Pb
Explanation: Cupellation is a refining process in metallurgy, where ores or
alloyed metals are treated under very high temperatures and have controlled
operations to separate noble metals, like gold and silver, from base metals like
lead, copper, zinc or bismuth, present in the ore. Cupellation removes the
impurity of Pb from silver. The reaction is given as below:
Ag(s) + 2Pb(s) + O2(g) → 2PbO(absorbed) + Ag(l)

5. a. ZnO
Explanation: ZnO is white in color. This is because Zn is in +2 oxidation state

with d10 system having no unpaired electrons and hence absence of d-d
transition.

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 6. Cr (Z=24) : [Ar]3d54s1

7. Cerium shows +3 as well as +4 oxidation states.

8. KMnO4 is kept in dark bottles because KMnO4 gets decomposed to K2MnO4 in

presence of sun light.

9. M2+ (aq) (Z= 27) will have electronic configuration as [Ar]3d 74s0. It has 3 unpaired
electron i.e.(n=3).
Magnetic moment is calculated using spin only formula.

= 3.87 B.M

10. Potassium permanganate is used –

a. As an oxidizing agent in analytical chemistry and organic chemistry.
b. For bleaching of wool, cotton, silk and other textile fibres.
c. For decolourisation of oils.

11. Transition metals have a partially filled d-orbital of pen-ultimate shell in their ground

state or most stable oxidation state. Therefore, the electronic configuration of

transition elements is (n - 1)d1-10ns1-2 The non-transition elements either do not have

a d-orbital in pen ultimate shell or have a fully filled d-orbital. Therefore, the

electronic configuration of non-transition elements is ns1-2or ns2np1-6

12. Lanthanoid contractions is the cumulative effect of the regular decrease in size or
radii of Lanthanoid with increase in atomic number is called Lanthanoid contraction.
The main causes of Lanthanoid contraction is the diffused shape of f -orbitals. They
have poor shielding effect due to which the effective nuclear charge increase with
increase in atomic number. This causes a decrease in atomic radii.
Due to Lanthanoid contraction-
i. Radii of the members of the third transition series is similar to those of second
transition series.
ii. It becomes difficult to separate Lanthanoids.
13. Element M having atomic number(Z) = 27 will have electronic configuration as

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 [Ar]3d74s 2. Therefore, the dipositive ion of M will have electronic configuration as

[Ar]3d7 .

3d7 can be represented as follows:

It has 3 unpaired electrons

Therefore, n = 3
Magnetic moment can be calculated as

14. a. Transition metals act as a catalyst due to their abilities to show multiple oxidation
state and form unstable complexes with the substrates which decomposes to
product.
b. Chromium group elements have high melting point in their respective series due
to the presence of maximum number of unpaired electrons in d-orbitals because
of which they form strong metallic bonding. Because of strong metallic bonding,
they have high melting point.
c. Transition metal ions have incompletely filled d orbitals. When an electron from a
lower energy d orbital is excited to a higher energy d orbital, the energy of
excitation corresponds to the frequency of light absorbed. This frequency
generally lies in the visible region. The colour observed corresponds to the
complementary colour of the light absorbed.
15. a. Acidified permanganate solution act as a strong oxidising agent. KMnO 4 oxidises

oxalates to carbon dioxide, sulphides to sulphur etc and itself get reduced to Mn+2.

b. i. Cr2+ is less stable than Cr3+ therefore it is good reducing agent. Cr3+ is stable

because outer most electronic configuration of Cr 3+ is 3d3, which makes a

stable half filled t2g configuration. Whereas Mn2+ has outermost electronic

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 configuration as 3d5 which is stable due to half filled d-orbitals therefore it is
not reducing agent.

ii. Cu+, Ag+ , Sc3+ are colourless because they do not have unpaired electrons. Due
to absence of unpaired electrons in them, no d-d transition occurs.
iii. Actinoids show large number of oxidation states, that is why their chemistry is
more complicated. Secondly all of them are radioactive and the earlier
members have relatively long half-lives, the latter ones have half-life values
ranging from a day to some minutes. The latter members could be prepared
only in nanogram quantities. These facts render their study more difficult.

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