Question

What are the elemental oxidation numbers in sodium chloride?

Answer 1

For elemental ions, the oxidation number of the ion is the same as its electric charge..........

Explanation:

And thus we get oxidation numbers of `+I` and `-I`, for sodium ion and chloride ion respectively. Note that the original synthesis of `NaCl` is certainly a redox equation:

`stackrel(0)Na(s) + 1/2stackrel(0)Cl_2rarrstackrel(+I)Na^(+)stackrel(-I)Cl^(-)(s)`