Question

What is a redox reaction? Explain with one example.

Answer 1

Hint: The answer to this question is based on the fact of basic organic reactions that includes oxidation and reduction reaction which is taking place in one single step and this fact gives the required answer.

Complete step by step answer:
We have studied the basic concepts in organic chemistry that deal with the topic of oxidation and reduction reactions and also several reactions associated with it.
We shall see what the redox reaction means and how is it understood and we shall see this by taking an example.
- Redox reaction is given a name by the combined reactions of oxidation and reduction taking place in a single step.
- Thus, we can define redox reaction as a chemical reaction in which the electrons are transferred between two reactants participating in it. This electron transfer can be identified by observing the changes in the oxidation states of reacting species.
We can consider a simple example to understand the fundamentals of redox reactions.
The reaction between zinc metal with a proton to give zinc ion and hydrogen gas is as shown below,
\[Zn(s)+2{{H}^{+}}(aq)\xrightarrow{{}}Z{{n}^{2+}}(aq)+{{H}_{2}}(g)\]
In the above particular reaction, the oxidation state of zinc metal is zero and that of a proton is +1 and when these two reactants react together, we get zinc ion which has +1 oxidation state and a hydrogen gas which do not have any oxidation state that is it is zero.
Thus, by this above example, we can say that zinc undergoes oxidation from 0 to +1 state that is loss of electron and proton undergoes reduction by the gain of electrons from zinc where the oxidation state changes from +1 to 0.

Note: The redox reactions are important because they are the principal source of energy on this planet both natural and artificial and this plays an important role in the photosynthesis process by the plants for the production of oxygen naturally.