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Manganese

Element 25 · Transition metal

Specimen

Atomic number
25
Atomic mass
54.938
State at room temperature
Solid
Melting point
1,246 °C
Boiling point
2,061 °C
Density
7.3 g/cm³
Discovered
1774

Atomic mass from IUPAC.1 Other physical data from PubChem.2

Can I eat it?

In food and water
Your body needs it. Manganese is an essential nutrient. EFSA did not have enough data to set an upper limit, so it set safe levels of intake. 34

See every element.

The atom

Mn
ShellElectrons
1 (K) 2
2 (L) 8
3 (M) 13
4 (N) outermost 2
Total25

Configuration [Ar] 3d⁵ 4s²

3d ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑
4s ↑ ↓
A shell diagram: each ring is an electron shell and each dot is one electron. The nucleus holds 25 protons. The outermost shell is shown in red. Electrons do not travel on rings: they fill orbitals, regions where an electron is likely to be found. The boxes are those orbitals for the electrons outside the Ar core, with one arrow per electron.

Related elements

Group 7
Tc Technetium Re Rhenium Bh Bohrium

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Sources

  1. 1

    IUPAC Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights (CIAAW), 2024. Abridged Standard Atomic Weights 2024 .

    The atomic mass shown for the 84 elements that have a standard atomic weight.

  2. 2

    National Center for Biotechnology Information (PubChem), 2026. Periodic Table of Elements .

    Electron configuration, melting and boiling points, density and discovery year for all 118 elements.

  3. 3

    European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), 2017. Dietary Reference Values for nutrients. Summary report (amended 2019) .

    Summaries of the EFSA NDA Panel opinions on each vitamin and mineral, section 4 (minerals) and section 5 (cobalamin).

    • Manganese is an essential dietary element for mammals.
  4. 4

    European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), 2025. Overview on Tolerable Upper Intake Levels as derived by the SCF and the EFSA NDA Panel (version 11) , Table 1 footnotes.

    • As there were insufficient data on which to base the UL for manganese, safe levels of intakes were established
  5. 5

    National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), 2026. Atomic Weights and Isotopic Compositions for All Elements .

    Isotopic composition of each element; the most abundant isotope sets the neutron count in the nucleus view.