Scandium is not regarded as a transition metal because its ion has

Scandium is not regarded as a transition metal because its ion has no electron in the d-orbital.

To understand this, let's first define a transition metal. A transition metal is defined as an element that has an incomplete d-subshell in either its elemental form or in any of its common oxidation states.

When Scandium (Sc) loses electrons to form its most common ion (Sc³⁺), it loses three electrons. These electrons are removed from the 4s and 3d orbitals. The electron configuration for Scandium is [Ar] 3d¹ 4s². Upon losing three electrons to form Sc³⁺, the resulting electron configuration is [Ar], which means there are:

• No electrons in the 3d sublevel
• No electrons in the 4s sublevel

As a result, there are no electrons in the d-orbital of the Scandium ion, which does not meet the criteria for a transition metal.