Increasing reducing power

[Ashley McClearnen 1B]

How do you know what species have high reducing power?

[JiangJC Dis2K]

Oxidation and reduction are opposites. So the species that has a higher tendency to oxidize has a higher reducing power. For example if the reduction potential of species 1 was .34v and species 2 was .78v, species 1 is more likely to be oxidized and therefore has a higher reducing power.

[Madeline Ho 1C]

The E values we're given are reduction potentials, so the greater the value, the more likely it is to be reduced. Therefore, the species with higher reducing power are the species more likely to be oxidized, i.e. a smaller E value.

[Rogelio Bazan 1D]

Conceptually what I find helpful is looking at periodic trends along the periodic table looking at electronegativity as you go up and to the left toward Florine you electronegativity increases on the periodic table. To define Electronegativity it is the chemical property that describes the ability of an atom to attract electrons toward itself. to define Reduction Potential it is the tendency of a chemical species to acquire electrons (aka being reduced).

So to answer your question, 'How do you know what species have high reducing power?' I look at electronegativity of the element to determine if it has a high Reduction Potential. A simple example) Fluorine has the highest electronegativity value and also has the highest standard reduction potential. So to determine if it has a high reducing power you can look at electronegativity as it is relative to the number of electrons the atom can pull toward itself. Hope this helps.

[Kyither Min 2K]

So reducing power refers to the strength of the ion/substance as a reducing agent. The ion/substance that is being oxidized is also the reducing agent. Therefore, the more the ion/substance wants to be oxidized the stronger it is as a reducing agent or reducing power. We can determine the oxidization power through the standard reduction potential. The more smaller the number, the more it wants to be oxidized so the stronger the reducing power.