What is a reduction agent?
The reducing agent is a term in chemistry that refers to an atom that donates electrons in an oxidative reduction reaction. The atom gaining these electrons is said to be reduced. Reduced atom is called oxidation agent; It will take electrons from an oxidized atom, which is another name for the reduction agent.
If the electron leaves the atom, it must go somewhere else, so the processes of oxidation and reduction go hand in hand. Together they form a class of reactions called oxidative reduction reactions, also known as redox reactions. These reactions create electron flow, so they have electrical potential. This is a concept behind the potato battery, a common scientific experiment. The experimenter puts one lead of zinc and one copper lead. Freely floating ions in potatoes facilitate the flow of electrons between two wires preventing the accumulation of the positive charge around the conductors that would stop the reaction. Electrons flow from lead, which act as a reduction agent on a line that acts as an oxidizing agent; In this process atoms from rThe educational lead enters the potato solution, while the ions surrounding the oxidation lead are converted into metal on the surface of the original lead.
If the atom is an oxidation agent in response, it would be a reduction agent if the reaction turned. Whether the atom acts as an oxidizing agent or a reduction agent depends on the direction in which the reaction is spontaneous. The reactions occur spontaneously if their products are relatively more stable than their reagents. Scientists can predict the spontaneity of reactions of reducing oxidation based on their electrical potential.
In order to evaluate potential oxidative reducing reactions, scientists first break the reaction to half the response, which represent the loss of electrons or reduction. In the case of potatoes, zinc and copper can form both ions with a positive 2 hub. Half reactions are thus a zn +2 + 2E ->> Cu.
The next step is to find the direction of the electron flow. The experimenter does this using a table of standard reduction potentials, which provides potential for each half of the reaction. If the direction of half the reaction is perverted, its potential has the same size, but its sign will change. The potential for the half reaction zinc is -0.76 volts, while copper is 0.34 volts
This means that Zink is a stronger reduction agent than copper, so in this reaction Zinc acts as a reduction agent. The overall reaction in the potato battery is Zn + Cu +2 -> ZP> +2 + Cu, which generates 1.10 volts of electricity in the wire connecting the wire. If zinc lead was replaced by silver guidance, but then copper would be a reduction reagent, because half the reaction of silver, AG + + E -, has a standard reduction potential of 0.80 V. The battery would generate 0.46 volts.