How would you explain oxidation states?
1 Answer
Oxidation state is the charge left on the central atom when all the bonding pairs of electrons are removed, with the charge, the electron, retained by the most electronegative atom.
Explanation:
We recognize that
When we burn carbon in air, the reactants both have
The oxygen molecule is conceived to have accepted 4 electrons from the carbon to give
We could split the reaction up into half equations:
And we add the individual reactions, to eliminate the electrons:
There should be many more answers here on Socratic that deal with such problems. You have to dig for them. See here and here and here.