What makes an oxidizing agent and oxidizing agent

Spontaneous oxidation-reduction reactions convert the stronger of a pair of oxidizing agents and the stronger of a pair of reducing agents into a weaker oxidizing agent and a weaker reducing agent. On the basis of many such experiments, the common oxidation-reduction half-reactions have been organized into a table in which the strongest reducing agents are at one end and the strongest oxidizing agents are at the other, as shown in the table below.

By convention, all of the half-reactions are written in the direction of reduction. Furthermore, by convention, the strongest reducing agents are usually found at the top of the table. Fortunately, you don't have to memorize these conventions. All you have to do is remember that the active metals, such as sodium and potassium, are excellent reducing agents and look for these entries in the table.

The strongest reducing agents will be found at the corner of the table where sodium and potassium metal are listed. Click here to check your answer to Practice Problem 9. Click here to check your answer to Practice Problem Photosynthesis is the means by which we get the oxygen we need for life. Light striking a plant pigment known as chlorophyll initiates a complex series of reactions, many of which involve redox processes complete with movement of electrons.

In this series of reactions, water is converted to oxygen gas, and we have something to sustain our lives. In the reaction above, zinc is being oxidized by losing electrons. However, there must be another substance present that gains those electrons and in this case that is the sulfur. In other words, the sulfur is causing the zinc to be oxidized. Sulfur is called the oxidizing agent. The zinc causes the sulfur to gain electrons and become reduced and so the zinc is called the reducing agent.

The oxidizing agent is a substance that causes oxidation by accepting electrons; therefore, its oxidation state decreases. The reducing agent is a substance that causes reduction by losing electrons; therefore its oxidation state increases. Both the oxidizing and reducing agents are the reactants and therefore appear on the left -hand side of an equation.

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