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In chemistry, the oxidation state, or oxidation number, is the hypothetical charge of an atom if all of its bonds to other atoms were fully ionic. It describes the degree of oxidation (loss of electrons) of an atom in a chemical compound. Conceptually, the oxidation state may be positive, negative or zero.
The formal charge is a tool for estimating the distribution of electric charge within a molecule. [1] [2] The concept of oxidation states constitutes a competing method to assess the distribution of electrons in molecules. If the formal charges and oxidation states of the atoms in carbon dioxide are compared, the following values are arrived at:
See also: oxidation states in {{infobox element}} [ edit ] The oxidation states are also maintained in articles of the elements (of course), and systematically in the table {{ Infobox element/symbol-to-oxidation-state }}
Each string oxidation-state-number values an oxidation-state-number eg "+3," starts with a space or a newline, followed by; a math minus sign (not a dash) OR; a plus OR; nothing; followed by number, followed by comma (every entry including the last one), a referenced-oxidation-state-number is an oxidation-state-number followed by a <ref ...
As anticipated by its hydride clusters, boron forms a variety of stable compounds with formal oxidation state less than three. B 2 F 4 and B 4 Cl 4 are well characterized. [6] Ball-and-stick model of superconductor magnesium diboride. Boron atoms lie in hexagonal aromatic graphite-like layers, with a charge of −1 on each boron atom.
The formal oxidation state of the nitrogen atom in nitrite is +3. This means that it can be either oxidized to oxidation states +4 and +5, or reduced to oxidation states as low as −3. Standard reduction potentials for reactions directly involving nitrous acid are shown in the table below: [4]
The carbon and fluorine in Teflon (PTFE) both have an electronic charge of zero since they form a covalent bond, but few scientists describe those elements as having an oxidation state of zero. On the other hand, many elements, in their pure form, are often described as existing with an oxidation state of zero.
One example is that someone can use the charge of an ion to find the oxidation number of a monatomic ion. For example, the oxidation number of + is +1. This helps when trying to solve oxidation questions. A charge number also can help when drawing Lewis dot structures. For example, if the structure is an ion, the charge will be included outside ...