Negative oxidation state

Why doesn’t aluminum have negative oxidation states? In almost all compounds of aluminum which I know of has positive oxidation state.


It has valence EC [Ne] 3s2 3p1 , my teacher told it usually forms +1 and +3 oxidation state by completely sharing p orbital electron or both s and p orbital completely(and +2 o.s. is always average of aluminum)


So why can’t aluminum or any 13th group element for that matter accept electron and make its p orbital half filled i.e form compounds with negative oxidation state?




Aluminum does assume negative oxidation states, see the list of elemental oxidation states in [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxidation_state). Aluminum assumes a negative oxidation state when forming compounds with more electropositive elements like [magnesium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnesium_aluminide).


The magnesium compounds referred to above include $\ce{Mg\_{17}Al\_{12}}$. In this compound there is enough magnesium to half-fill the valence $p$ orbital on aluminum and thus attain a $-2$ oxidation state for the aluminum, which is the minimum in Wikipedia's list. (Part of the magnesium would then be below $+2$). However, this is only a formal designation. Magnesium aluminides are far from ionic in character.


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