Strongest Reducing Agent

[Jessica Li 4F]

How do you determine what's the most strongly reducing agent, as in 6.45? How is Al the most strongly reducing metal, even though it is very low in the standard electrochemical series?

[charleejohnson1L]

okay i just understood this like 20 mins ago so here's my rant about this: so the E is the standard reduction potential, so the higher the value is, the more reduction is going to take place. when looking for the strongest reducing agent, since the word "agent" is used, we're really looking for the thing that has the most potential to be oxidized. so the lowest E value (meaning the least amount of reduction occurring) is going to be the place where the most oxidization occurs, so guess what it's the strongest reducing agent. bam. i hope this helps :)

[Sean Cheah 1E]

The potentials listed in most tables are standard reduction potentials, with higher values indicating that reduction is more likely to occur. The strongest reducing agents (i.e. the species most likely to give up electrons and become oxidized) are the ones that are the least likely to be reduced. This means they are the ones with the lowest standard reduction potentials.

[Uisa_Manumaleuna_3E]

Also on the same topic of strength of reducing agents, sometimes you see metals that have two different E values (eg. Ag+/Ag2+ E=.80 or E=1.98),and sometimes this can make things a little confusing. But when comparing these kinds of elements I try to just look at these different electronegativities as a range of the element's overall electronegativity. This makes it a little more comprehensive when trying to line everything up by increasing strength of a reducing agent.

[005162902]

the strongest reducing agent will be whatever is most likely to be oxidized. Therefore it will be the lowest Ecell value because the lower the value, the more it favors oxidation. The higher the number, the more it favors reduction.

[Lauren Tanaka 1A]

The strongest reducing agent will be the reactant that is oxidized. When comparing oxidized reactants the strongest reducing agent will be the one with the lowest reduction potential.