Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Chemistry => Topic started by: mogsmar5 on 28/01/2010 19:05:20

Title: What's the difference between oxidation numbers and charge?
Post by: mogsmar5 on 28/01/2010 19:05:20

I know they're related but I'm not sure how.

Title: What's the difference between oxidation numbers and charge?
Post by: chris on 23/02/2010 13:38:42

The oxidation number is the charge that a central atom would have if all of its ligands were removed, including the electron pairs being shared with those ligands.

For example, in carbon dioxide - CO2 - the carbon oxygen bond is a double = bond:

O=C=O

This means that two pairs of electrons are involved in each bond.

If the oxygens were removed, together with the electrons pairs, this would leave the carbon in a +4 state - hence oxidation number 4.

For water - H2O - it would be two pairs of electrons being removed from the oxygen (one for each hydrogen) hence oxygen has a +2 oxidation state.

This means that the oxidation number can tell you the charge on the individual ions made by an element.

Chris