Acidic and Basic Redox Reactions

[Aimee Alvarado 3J]

Just to make sure I'm doing this correctly and efficiently, I will note down the steps that I take to solve these problems. Please let me know if something is wrong or missing and give me tips if you'd like to:

Acidic Solutions:
Recognize them because one reactant will have oxygen and the products won't
1. Add H2O to the side that does not have oxygen to balance it out. Focus on oxygen only and not hydrogen.
2. Add H+ to the other side of H2O to balance hydrogen
3. Balance the charges and determine where the electrons will go and how much
And from there solve the problem

Basic Solutions:
Recognize them because one reactant/product will have OH and then O on the other side
1. Add any OH- that might be necessary to balance the equation
2. This might be on the same half-reaction or may not, but add H2O to the side that has more oxygen to balance it out. Focus on oxygen only
3. Add OH- on the other side of H2O to balance hydrogen
4. Balance charges
And from there solve the problem.

Again, please let me know if this is correct or if I'm missing anything necessary. Thank you so much in advance!

[Kaitlyn Hernandez 3I]

This was very helpful, thank you!!! Dr. Lavelle also has some notes on his website that go over acid/base redox reactions and that really clarified a lot for me. I'll put the links down below:
https://lavelle.chem.ucla.edu/wp-conten ... itions.pdf
https://lavelle.chem.ucla.edu/wp-conten ... itions.pdf

[Valerie Tran 2B]

These are both great posts, I was never able to make clear steps for acidic and basic redox reactions so I appreciate these. Thanks, guys!

[RitaThomas_3G]

These steps all look correct! Something that I always just like to keep in mind when balancing the equations under acidic equations is to look to add H+, while for basic conditions it would be adding OH- and H20! These resources were very helpful to just clarify everything also by the way! Thank you!

[Jeremy Wei 2C]

Yes these look correct and is a really good summary!

[t_rasul2I]

This was very helpful, thank you!!! Dr. Lavelle also has some notes on his website that go over acid/base redox reactions and that really clarified a lot for me. I'll put the links down below:
https://lavelle.chem.ucla.edu/wp-conten ... itions.pdf
https://lavelle.chem.ucla.edu/wp-conten ... itions.pdf

Thank you for this very simplified guide!

[Rachael Cohen 3G]

Your steps look correct! Sometimes I get confused about balancing in basic conditions though, and in one of the UA sessions I was taught you could just balance it in acidic conditions first, and then however many H+ you have, you add that many OH- to each side. That way, the H+ and OH- combine to form H2O, and you are left with only H2O and OH- (in addition to the species in the half reactions) and then it is in basic conditions.

[605291562]

Thank you for this! Very helpful post, and I think your steps look correct