Number of electrons
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Number of electrons
How do we determine the number of electrons in the oxidation and reduction half-reactions?
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Re: Number of electrons
In half reactions we just find the sum of the two halves (the reduction half-reaction + the oxidation half-reaction). First make sure all of the equations are balanced. Make sure in molecule compounds as well that you are taking note of the sign. For example, let's pretend that FeO2-2 is a thing. We know O has a charge of -2 and -2 * 2 atoms = -4 charge, so we can deduce Fe has a initial charge of +2, and if it is oxidized we will see that it has a +3 charge on the product side.
As far as half reactions go I will attach an easy example:
As far as half reactions go I will attach an easy example:
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Re: Number of electrons
We want to balance the number of electrons on both sides. In order to do this, we must add electrons in the half reactions. They should cancel out when added.
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Re: Number of electrons
For the oxidation numbers question, you generally want to look at the charge of the element/compound. The sum of the oxidation numbers of the elements in a compound should equate to the compound's overall charge. There are some specific rules for finding oxidation numbers of certain elements, which you can find here: https://www.khanacademy.org/science/che ... ion-number
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