Balancing Redox Reactions

[Thu Uyen Tran 1B]

When balancing redox reactions, you add H+ to an acidic solution and OH- for a basic solution, right? Why do we not use H3O+?

[torialmquist1F]

I believe you don't use H3O+ because then it would unbalance the oxygens in the reaction

[Glendy Gonzalez 1A]

Yes, you use H+ in acidic solutions and OH- in basic solutions.

[Shane Simon 2K]

H30+ is basically just H20 and H+ so adding H30+ would just complicate the balancing by including extra molecules that aren't needed when you could just use H+ to balance.

[Nathan Tu 2C]

We use H+ to balance redox reactions because its easier. With H3O+, we have extra oxygens we have to balance so it would make reaction balancing harder.