One of the key con­cepts that al­lows united state to de­scribe the ox­i­da­tion and re­duc­tion prop­er­ties of mol­e­cules is the ox­i­da­tion state. This is just an aux­il­iary quan­ti­ty: the does no de­scribe the true charge on each of the atom in the mol­e­cule, but helps to gain an idea exactly how the giv­ing up and also ac­cep­tance the elec­trons takes ar in ox­i­da­tion and also re­duc­tion re­ac­tions. Over there is a cer­tain technique that helps us to cal­cu­late cor­rect­ly the ox­i­da­tion says for each atom.

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How to de­ter­mine the ox­i­da­tion state in a sim­ple sub­stance

Sub­stances are referred to as sim­ple i m sorry con­sist of atom of the exact same kind. Because that ex­am­ple, sim­ple sub­stances in­clude oxy­gen (O₂), hy­dro­gen (H₂), sodi­um (Na), beryl­li­um (Be), io­dine (I₂), ozone (O₃) and oth­ers.

Each of these sub­stances has a zero ox­i­da­tion state. This have the right to be ex­plained through the fact that the elec­trons in mol­e­cules of this type do not transition any­where. In di­atom­ic mol­e­cules con­sist­ing of atom of one el­e­ment, a co­va­lent non-po­lar bond is re­al­ized (Cl-Cl; H-H): as bond­ed atoms space equal, the dis­place­ment of elec­tron den­si­ty to any type of oth­er atom is no ob­served, and so the move­ment of elec­trons does not take place. In monoatom­ic mol­e­cules (for ex­am­ple he­li­um He, Ar­gon Ar), the ox­i­da­tion state is also zero.

How to de­ter­mine ox­i­da­tion says in com­plex sub­stances

Sub­stances are dubbed com­plex i beg your pardon con­sist of 2 or much more types of atoms.


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For ex­am­ple, ta­ble salt NaCl is a com­plex (or bi­na­ry, i.e. Con­sist­ing of atom of 2 types) com­pound, as it con­tains atoms of dif­fer­ent elec­tron con­fig­u­ra­tions that room chem­i­cal­ly con­nect­ed to every oth­er. In this com­pounds you deserve to place the non-zero ox­i­da­tion states, together a move­ment the elec­tron den­si­ty is ob­served come the many elec­tri­cal­ly neg­a­tive el­e­ment. In sodi­um chlo­ride, the elec­tri­cal neg­a­tiv­i­ty is high­er in chlo­rine (this non-met­al is a solid ox­i­diz­er, and also so its elec­tri­cal neg­a­tiv­i­ty is lot high­er 보다 sodi­um, i m sorry is a re­duc­er). The ox­i­da­tion state the sodi­um is +1, and also the ox­i­da­tion state of chlo­rine is -1.

To es­tab­lish the cor­rect ox­i­da­tion state on one atom in a com­pound, we might use the fol­low­ing rules.

1. The ox­i­da­tion state of oxy­gen in com­pounds is usu­al­ly -2 (an ex­cep­tion is per­ox­ide (for ex­am­ple Na₂O₂) and su­per­ox­ides (KO₂), whereby the ox­i­da­tion state the oxy­gen is -1 and -1/2 re­spec­tive­ly; in ozonides such together KO₃ the ox­i­da­tion state the oxy­gen is -1/3; oxy­gen only has the pos­i­tive ox­i­da­tion state that +2 in the com­pound v flu­o­rine OF₂).

2. The ox­i­da­tion state of flu­o­rine is al­ways -1.


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By Giovani Rech - own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link


An­i­ma­tion show­ing the crys­tal struc­ture the beta-flu­o­rine

3. The max­i­mum ox­i­da­tion state of one el­e­ment is fre­quent­ly equal to the num­ber that the team it is lo­cat­ed in; ex­cep­tions are oxy­gen (+2), flu­o­rine (-1), steel (+6), the sub­group the nick­el (+3, an ext rarely +4), and no­ble gas­es.

4. The min­i­mum neg­a­tive ox­i­da­tion state is cal­cu­lat­ed ac­cord­ing to the for­mu­la: the num­ber of the group mi­nus 8 (in cal­cu­lat­ing the va­lence, the for­mu­la is cal­cu­lat­ed angry ver­sa – the num­ber that the group is sub­tract­ed from 8).

5. Ox­i­da­tion states of sim­ple monoatom­ic ions room equal to their charges (for ex­am­ple, Na(+) has actually both a charge of 1+ and also an ox­i­da­tion state that +1; a sim­i­lar sit­u­a­tion ex­ists through Mg(2+), F(-) etc.).

6. In non-ion­ic com­pounds, the ox­i­da­tion de­gree that hy­dro­gen is +1 (an ex­cep­tion is com­pounds v sil­i­con and also ar­senic SiH₄ и AsH₃; in hy­dro­gen hy­drides hy­dro­gen likewise has a neg­a­tive ox­i­da­tion state: in NaH sodi­um has an ox­i­da­tion state that +1, when hy­dro­gen has an ox­i­da­tion state of -1).

7. In com­pounds that non-met­als, which perform not con­tain hy­dro­gen or oxy­gen, the atom v the neg­a­tive ox­i­da­tion state is the one with a high­er elec­tri­cal neg­a­tiv­i­ty (it have the right to be checked out in the cor­re­spond­ing ref­er­ence ta­ble): the val­ue the the ox­i­da­tion state in these com­pounds for a more elec­tri­cal­ly neg­a­tive non-met­al cor­re­sponds to the fee of its most wide­spread ion (in car­bon sul­fide CS₂ car­bon has the ox­i­da­tion state the +4, if sul­fur is a much more elec­tri­cal­ly neg­a­tive atom, and its many com­mon ion has the charge of -2.


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Carbon sulfide CS₂

Ac­cord­ing to this rules, we deserve to cal­cu­late the ox­i­da­tion says of atoms because that any mol­e­cule.

Cal­cu­lat­ing ox­i­da­tion claims in com­plex mol­e­cules

The sum­ma­ry ox­i­da­tion the a mol­e­cule must be zero, together the mol­e­cule is neu­tral.

Cal­cu­lat­ing val­ues for el­e­ments which deserve to have sev­er­al ox­i­da­tion states

In cal­cu­lat­ing sum­ma­ry ox­i­da­tion states, at­ten­tion is al­ways payment to in­dices: in the per­chlo­ric acid mol­e­cule HClO₄ oxy­gen has the ox­i­da­tion state the -2. Together there space 4 oxy­gen atom in the mol­e­cule, its ox­i­da­tion state is mul­ti­plied by 4: -2*4 = -8.

This theatre a duty in de­ter­min­ing ox­i­da­tion says in el­e­ments in which this val­ue might vary. Chlo­rine has numerous pos­si­ble ox­i­da­tion states, for this reason the val­ue for HClO₄ might be cal­cu­lat­ed math­e­mat­i­cal­ly, with the equa­tion:

+1 + х + (-2)*4 = 0

х = +7

The ox­i­da­tion state that chlo­rine in per­chlo­ric mountain is +7, as each that the 4 oxy­gen atoms have an ox­i­da­tion state of -2, this val­ue is +1 because that hy­dro­gen, and also the mol­e­cule must have actually a zero ox­i­da­tion state in this sum).

Equa­tion the ox­i­da­tion says of el­e­ments in mag­ne­sium and also beryl­li­um hy­drox­ides


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Magnesium hydroxide

In mag­ne­sium hy­drox­ide Mg(OH)₂ there room two hy­dro­gen atoms v an ox­i­da­tion state that +1 and also two oxy­gen atoms with ox­i­da­tion says of -2. If this ox­i­da­tion says are added tak­ing the in­dices right into ac­count, we might re­ceive the val­ue the -2: (+1)*2+(-2)*2= -2.

The ox­i­da­tion state of mag­ne­sium in the com­pound is +2 (as mag­ne­sium is a mem­ber the the sec­ond group of the pe­ri­od­ic ta­ble).

When we include the val­ues, we obtain zero: +2+(-2)=0.

This means that the ox­i­da­tion states have been cal­cu­lat­ed cor­rect­ly: because that mag­ne­sium the val­ue is +2, because that oxy­gen -2 and also for hy­dro­gen +1.

All atom in mag­ne­sium hy­drox­ide Mg(OH)₂ have fixed val­ues that ox­i­da­tion states, therefore this com­pound is a quite sim­ple situation for de­ter­min­ing con­di­tion­al fees in atoms.

The sit­u­a­tion with beryl­li­um hy­drox­ide Be(OH)₂ is sim­i­lar: the ox­i­da­tion state that beryl­li­um al­ways cor­re­sponds to its charge and also is +2, the ox­i­da­tion state the oxy­gen the com­pounds is -2, and also of hy­dro­gen +1. If this val­ues are added tak­ing into ac­count the in­dices, we get zero:

+2 + (-2 + (+1))*2 = 0.

How the ox­i­da­tion state dif­fers from va­lence and charge

The ox­i­da­tion state, va­lence and also charge of an el­e­ment are of­ten iden­ti­cal in val­ue. Nev­er­the­less, this con­cepts have actually a dif­fer­ent mean­ing. The ox­i­da­tion state is the con­di­tion­al charge on every atom in the com­pound (it is writ­ten above each atom, and an initial its al­ge­bra­ic sign must be in­di­cat­ed, and also then the nu­mer­i­cal val­ue). The ion charge is writ­ten dif­fer­ent­ly: because that sim­ple ion it is likewise writ­ten above the el­e­ment sym­bol, but an initial its val­ue is in­di­cat­ed, and then the al­ge­bra­ic authorize (for ex­am­ple, 2+). For com­plex ions (such as the sul­fate ion SO₄²⁻), the fee is no in­di­cat­ed above the spe­cif­ic el­e­ment, together the ox­i­da­tion state, but above the en­tire com­plex ion. Click right here to discover out much more about ox­i­da­tion states.

The fee is con­nect­ed v its ox­i­da­tion states: because that ex­am­ple in Mg(OH)₂ 2 hy­drox­yl groups are present. The fee of the OH team is al­ways (1-). Ac­cord­ing to the rules, the sum of the ox­i­da­tion states of atoms in this group should be same to its fee (for the oh group, which con­sists the oxy­gen and hy­dro­gen, this rule is ob­served, as -2+1=-1).

Giv­en the there room two OH groups in mag­ne­sium hy­drox­ide, we may say the their sum­ma­ry charge is (2-). The ox­i­da­tion state that mag­ne­sium (+2) co­in­cides through its charge (2+).

Va­lence is the abil­i­ty of atoms to kind a cer­tain num­ber the chem­i­cal bonds. It deserve to only have actually a pos­i­tive val­ue. Of­ten va­lence co­in­cides with the ox­i­da­tion lev­el in its nu­mer­i­cal val­ue, yet there are additionally cer­tain ex­cep­tions – in ni­tric mountain HNO₃ the va­lence that ni­tro­gen is IV, but the ox­i­da­tion state is +5.


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In molec­u­lar ni­tro­gen a triple shortcut is re­al­ized be­tween atoms (so va­lence is III), however the ox­i­da­tion state is 0. Va­lence might be de­ter­mined through the struc­tural for­mu­la the the sub­stance.

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The ox­i­da­tion state dram a an essential role in record­ing the ox­i­da­tion-re­duc­tion pro­cess­es by the method of elec­tron bal­ances. The elec­tron bal­ance is the sim­plest an approach of record­ing the move­ment of elec­trons in a re­ac­tion, in which not real par­ti­cles are ex­am­ined, i beg your pardon ex­ist in a so­lu­tion (for ex­am­ple ions), but only atom in com­pounds, which adjust their ox­i­da­tion states, giv­ing and tak­ing elec­trons.