Question

Balance the following equation by oxidation method of balancing:
\[Ag+NO_{3}^{-}\to A{{g}^{+}}+N{{O}_{2}}\]

Answer 1

Hint: Find the oxidation no. of main atoms and balance the charge according to it. Now the given reaction is \[Ag+NO_{3}^{-}\to A{{g}^{+}}+N{{O}_{2}}\] this so we will step by step balance this equation.

Complete step by step solution:
STEP 1: Write down all the oxidation no. of each atom –
\[\overset{0}{\mathop{Ag}}\,+\overset{+5}{\mathop{N}}\,\overset{-2}{\mathop{O_{3}^{-}}}\,\to \overset{+1}{\mathop{A{{g}^{+}}}}\,+\overset{+4}{\mathop{N}}\,\overset{-2}{\mathop{{{O}_{2}}}}\,\]
Now this will look like this
STEP 2: Calculate Increase/Decrease in oxidation number in the reaction
Now we can see that the oxidation no. of silver is increased by one and the oxidation number of nitrogen is decreased by one per atom.
STEP 3: Balance the increase/decrease in oxidation number-
As the oxidation number increase by one atom as well as decrease by one atom so the balanced equation for other atom so this will become:
\[Ag+NO_{3}^{-}\to A{{g}^{+}}+N{{O}_{2}}\]
STEP 5: As the reaction takes place in an acidic medium, so we have to add \[{{H}^{+}}\] ions in both the sides and balance hydrogen and oxygen atoms according to it.
 So our balanced equation will look like this- \[Ag+NO_{3}^{-}+2{{H}^{+}}\to A{{g}^{+}}+N{{O}_{2}}+{{H}_{2}}O\]

Note:
While balancing the equation like this keep in mind that in elemental form oxidation number of the element is zero and after finding out all the oxidation numbers follow the steps and balance the increasing and decreasing atoms so that they become equal. And then check the medium in which the reaction is going on.