Group 12 elements (zinc group)

The elements in this sub-group are zinc, cadmium, mercury and the artificially produced copernicium. Zinc and cadmium show similar properties in many areas and often occur together in minerals in nature. After its first member, it is also known as the zinc group. The zinc group is the last row of the subgroup. Their elements have a d-shell that is completely filled with electrons. The preferred oxidation number in this group is + II because only the s electrons are used for bonding.

(What was the s- and d-shell again? Read the article about the structure of the periodic table here ).