SCH4U – Notes from Rayner

Redox
 Oxidation reaction– any reaction in which electrons are lost
 Reduction reaction – any reaction that involves the gain of electrons
 Oxidation + reduction happen concurrently -> redox reactions
 Electronegativity – ability of bonded atoms to attract electrons that are shared with
other atoms
- Metals have low electronegativity (lowest in Group IA)
- Nonmetals have high electronegativity (Cl, O, F easily reduced)
 Transfer of electrons
- Complete in ionic compounds, incomplete in molecular
 Oxidation number/state - # electrons an atom in a compound would gain or lose
 Oxidation number of an atom in its pure form, as an element, is zero
 Oxidation number of a monatomic ion is equal to the charge on the ion
- Alkali metals always have oxidation # of +1 in compounds
- Alkaline earth metals are +2
- Group VIIA elements all have values of -1
- Group VIA elements have values of -2
 The most common oxidation number for hydrogen is +1; in metal hydrides it is -1
 The most common oxidation number for oxygen is -2; in peroxides it is -1, and in
combination with fluorine is +2
 Many elements, especially nonmetals, can have several different oxidation numbers
- But oxidation number never exceeds the group number of the element
 Oxidation numbers with covalent bonds
- Transfer of electrons not complete, unequally shared electrons are counted with
the more electronegative atom
 In combination of nonmetals, the oxidation number of the more electronegative
atom is negative, and less electronegative atom is positive.
 Electrons are neither created nor destroyed in a chemical reaction -> total number
of electrons remain unchanged -> REDOX
 The element that undergoes oxidation is the reducing agent.
The element that undergoes reduction is the oxidizing agent.
 Activity series – list of metals + hydrogen arranged in order of acidity such that any
element in the series will displace ions of the elements below it from aqueous
solutions of their salts
- metal donates electrons to positive ions of another metal placed below it
 Good oxidizing agent – good electron accepter (oxygen and chlorine)
Good reducing agent – good electron donor (hydrogen gas)
  Many redox reactions involve increase/decrease in amount of oxygen contained in
reactants (terms oxidation and reduction origin)
- Element/compound is oxidized when combining with oxygen
- “” reduced when oxygen is removed from it

 In all combustion – substance burned is oxidized and oxygen is reduced + oxidation

number of hydrogen atoms is unchanged
 Combustion of glucose – lighting it with a match or metabolic reactions in body
(overall result is the same)

fdafdaffffffffffffffffffffff