Chemical Forums
Specialty Chemistry Forums => Other Sciences Question Forum => Topic started by: Smelborpt on July 22, 2018, 06:30:39 AM
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Hello. I'm new to this forum so please tell me if I'm doing anything wrong. I have to write a chemistry report on oxidisation and reduction. I'm currently thinking of how to experimentally quantify the oxidisation. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.
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Oxidation is a process. You can't quantify it, just like you can't quantify "falling down" or "thinking". You need to choose a variable that can be measured and start from there.
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Hello. I'm new to this forum so please tell me if I'm doing anything wrong. I have to write a chemistry report on oxidisation and reduction. I'm currently thinking of how to experimentally quantify the oxidisation. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.
As mentioned, you need to pick a reasonable dependent variable as an indicator of oxidation. Lavoisier's early experiments demonstrate some of the easier choices, as all of the products are in solid form, and the change of mass from the original can be used to quantify the addition of oxygen. The process can be reversed to liberate the oxygen in a reduction reaction.
https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/lavoisier.html#combustion-and-phlogiston
http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/webprojects2001/hossain/combustion.htm
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"Quantifying oxidation" is ambiguous. One can use oxidation numbers to gauge the oxidation state of an atom, and that might be considered a type of quantification. Or one might be referring to the completeness of an oxidation reaction...