ElementsWhat is manganese?
Manganese is a hard, brittle, grey metal. It is never used alone but is one of the most important additions to steel. The body needs a small amount of it.
What is manganese used for?
Steel making takes most of it. Also ordinary dry-cell and alkaline batteries, and aluminium drink-can alloys.
Where the name comes from
From the Latin word magnes, magnet, through confusion with a magnetic mineral.
Key facts
- Symbol
- Mn
- Atomic number
- 25
- Atomic mass
- 54.93804 u
- Family
- Transition metal
- Period
- 4
- Group
- 7
- Block
- d
- State at room temperature
- Solid
- Melting point
- 1,246 °C (1,519 K, 2,275 °F)
- Boiling point
- 2,061 °C (2,334 K, 3,742 °F)
- Density
- 7.3 g/cm³
- Electrons per shell
- 2, 8, 13, 2
- Electron configuration
- [Ar]4s2 3d5
- Common oxidation states
- +7, +4, +3, +2
- Electronegativity (Pauling)
- 1.55
- First ionisation energy
- 7.434 eV
- Electron affinity
- no value
- Atomic radius (van der Waals)
- 197 pm
- Discovered
- 1774
Place in the periodic table
Manganese is element number 25. It sits in period 4 (row 4) of the periodic table, in group 7 (column 7), and belongs to the d-block. Just before it comes chromium (24), and just after it comes iron (26). In the same column, technetium is below it. Elements in one column tend to behave alike.
Family: Transition metals.
Physical properties
At room temperature manganese is a solid. It melts at 1,246 °C and boils at 2,061 °C, so it stays liquid over a range of 815 degrees. Its density is 7.3 grams per cubic centimetre, so a one-litre block would weigh about 7.3 kilograms. By density it ranks 44th among the 96 elements with a measured value.
Inside the atom
An atom of manganese has 25 protons in its nucleus and, when neutral, 25 electrons around it. The electrons are arranged in 4 shells: 2, 8, 13, 2. The outermost shell holds 2 electrons. Written in full, the electron configuration is [Ar]4s2 3d5.
Its electronegativity on the Pauling scale is 1.55. This number shows how strongly an atom pulls shared electrons towards itself: fluorine, the strongest, is 3.98. Removing one electron from an atom takes 7.434 electronvolts (about 717 kilojoules per mole). One mole of manganese weighs 54.93804 grams, so a single gram contains about 1.10 × 1022 atoms.
The ring picture is a simple model that only counts the electrons in each shell. Real atoms do not look like this.
Next steps
- Work out the weight of a compound that contains manganese with the molar mass calculator.
- Compare it with every other element in the sortable list.
- Test yourself with the symbol quiz.
Figures on this page are from PubChem (U.S. National Library of Medicine), as downloaded on 11 November 2026. See About and data sources.