How do you identify oxidizing agents

Chemistry Electrochemistry Oxidation and Reduction Reactions. Sep 17, If an electode reaction has dssolved oxygen as a reactant, is the electrode an anode or a cathode? If an electrode reaction has dissolved oxygen as a reactant, is the electrode and anode or a cathode? What balanced equation represents a redox reaction?

What are reduction reactions used for? What does "calx" mean in oxidation reduction reactions? What are the reduced components in this reaction? See all questions in Oxidation and Reduction Reactions. 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. The examples below show how to analyze a redox reaction and identify oxidizing and reducing agents. When chlorine gas is bubbled into a solution of sodium bromide, a reaction occurs which produces aqueous sodium chloride and bromine. Because this oxidation state lies between the extremes of the more common 0 and -2 oxidation states of oxygen, H 2 O 2 can act as either an oxidizing agent or a reducing 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.