Manganese easy to oxidize. Manganese metal and its common ions are paramagnetic. Manganese tarnishes slowly in air and oxidizes ("rusts") like iron in water containing dissolved oxygen. Naturally occurring manganese is composed of one stable isotope, Mn. Eighteen radioisotopes have been isolated and described, ranging in atomic weight from 46 u (Mn) to 65 u (Mn). The most stable are Mn with a half-life of 3.7 million years, Mn with a half-life of 312.3 days, and Mn with a half-life of 5.591 days. All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives of less than three hours, and the majority of less
Chemical chameleon changes as the paper is oxidized and the permanganate reduced. Chemical chameleon The chemical chameleon is a redox reaction, well known from classroom demonstrations, that exploits the dramatic color changes associated with the various oxidation states of manganese. Glauber reported the first description of the production of potassium permanganate when he noted that manganese dioxide (as the mineral pyrolusite) could be reacted at high temperatures with alkali to obtain a material that dissolved in water to give a green solution which slowly shifted to a violet-red. This process, similar to that still used in the production of potassium permanganate, oxidized