Do reduction and oxidation occur together?
1 Answer
Well, yes.....we conceive of
Explanation:
And we conceive of
Since charge, as well as mass, is CONSERVED in every chemical reaction, for every oxidation there must be a corresponding reduction, and we can assign
Now ammonia can oxidized to nitrate.......a formal oxidation of
And thus for oxidation we write.....
Mass is balanced, and charge is balanced....so this is a reasonable representation of chemical change. Now the electrons are presumed to GO somewhere on oxidation; i.e. they cause a CORRESPONDING reduction of some other reagent (which of course is the OXIDIZING agent). A typical oxidizing agent is permanganate ion,
Charge and mass are balanced as required. Are they?
To complete the entire redox reaction, we cross multiply to remove the electrons.....
And then we cancel out the common reagents......
To give finally.......
Which, despite the whack coefficients, is balanced with respect to mass and charge. And we would see the deep purple colour of permanganate dissipate to give COLOURLESS