i. All the transition elements are metallic in nature. They either have hexagonal close pack (hcp), cubic close pack (ccp) or body centred cubic lattices which is a characteristic of true metal.
ii. They are hard, lustrous, malleable and ductile with high melting and boiling points, and having good thermal and electrical conductivities.
iii. Low ionization enthalpies and presence of vacant orbitals in the outermost shell results in metallic character due to formation of metallic bonds.
iv. In addition to the electrons from outermost energy level, the unpaired d-electrons also contribute for the bond formation. So, greater the number of unpaired d-electrons, stronger is the bonding. This is due to the formation of covalent bonds by the overlapping of the d-orbitals containing unpaired electrons.
