What is the oxidation number in chemistry?

Atoms are combined by giving and receiving negatively charged electrons, creating an ionic binding or sharing of electrons that form covalent bond. Usually ion ties are formed between metals and non -metal, while covalent bonds form only among non -acts. The oxidation number of the atom is the number of electrons they have provided, accepted, or shared with other atoms, and will be positive to lose or share electrons and negative when it has acquired or shared an electrons of another atom. The opposite process, the removal of oxygen, was known as a reduction. For example, when calcium combines with oxygen, oxygen removes two electrons from the calcium and gets a charge of -2, so the calcium leaves the charge +2. Ion binding was created; Calcium was oxidized and reduced by oxygen, which provided them with an oxidation number of +2 and -2. Covalent binding also includes oxidation and reduction: to form water, hydrogen tatoms combine with one oxygen atom, each of which shares electrorone with it. The oxidation number of two hydrogen atoms are each +1 and ATOm oxygen -2.

oxidation may not include oxygen; Today, oxidation simply means loss of electrons and reduction, profit of electrons. The elements towards the left corner of the periodic table usually tend to lose electrons, while they have the greatest tendency to get electrons to the upper right corner. Oxygen has a strong tendency to remove electrons from other elements and is therefore an oxidizing agent; However, other elements can also oxidize. For example, fluorine is an even stronger oxidation agent.

oxidation number of oxygen is usually -2, but many elements can have more than one possible oxidation number. For iron it can be +2 or +3, while for hydrogen it is +1 in combination with non -metal, as well as in water (h _{2 o), but -1 in combination with metals, as in sodium hydride (at + The nitrogen oxidation number may vary from -3 to +5. Oxidation numbers of ions in iThe ont compounds are equivalent to ions, while the atoms in the compound always contribute to zero.}

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elements can be combined to create ions that have an overall oxidation number. For example, sulfur atom can be combined with four oxygen atoms to form a sulphate group (ie ₄

2 -) with an oxidation number of -2. Ammonia, nitrogen and hydrogen compound with NH _{3 formula can be combined with another hydrogen atom to form an ammonium NH 4 +, with an oxidation number of +1. It behaves like a metal and creates ion compounds such as ammonium sulphate (NH 4 +) 2 SO 4 ), where two ammonial groups are combined with one sulfoute group.}