Oxidation Number and Balancing Redox Reactions

A bookkeeping tool for tracking electron transfer, and how to balance complex equations.

Oxidation Number

The oxidation number of an atom represents the charge it would have if all bonds to atoms of different elements were fully ionic — a useful bookkeeping device for identifying oxidation and reduction.

Balancing Redox Equations

Redox equations can be balanced using the oxidation number method or the half-reaction (ion-electron) method.

Lesson 19 of 26
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