Metal oxidation state

[juliaddc]

So far I have only seen cases where the metal oxidation state is a positive number, and I was wondering if this is always the case or are there any instances where it will be negative?

[Ariel Lucas 1H]

Hi! I would say that in general metal oxidation states will be positive for the most part because metals like to form cations (they have a better chance of reaching stability by losing one or two e- rather than gaining a bunch of e- to reach an octet. Generally for group 1 the oxidation state is +1 and for group 2 the oxidation state is +2.