Question

How can you identify the substance being oxidized in the following reaction:
$C{{H}_{4}}+{{O}_{2}}\to C{{O}_{2}}+{{H}_{2}}O$

Answer 1

Hint: Methane is a compound having a chemical formula $C{{H}_{4}}$ . The carbon atom is attached with four hydrogen atoms forming a tetrahedral. It has four equivalent Carbon – Hydrogen bonds. It is used in industrial chemical processes.

Complete answer:
> When a hydrocarbon, that is, $(C{{H}_{4}})$ reacts with oxygen, it results in the formation of $C{{O}_{2}}$ and water, and amount of energy is released in the form of light. This reaction is also known as combustion reaction. For example, burning of wood in winter is a combustion reaction.
> Now let us see the general representation of combustion reaction.
${{C}_{n}}{{H}_{2n}}+{{O}_{2}}\xrightarrow{\Delta }nC{{O}_{2}}+n{{H}_{2}}O$
Where, ${{C}_{n}}{{H}_{2n}}$ is a hydrocarbon.
> When a substance is oxidized in water, it results in the formation of $C{{O}_{2}}$ and ${{H}_{2}}O$ . This is how we will get to the combustion reaction.

Additional information:
There are two types of combustion reaction:
> Complete combustion reaction: When a fuel burns completely to produce carbon dioxide and heat with a sufficient supply of oxygen, it is known as complete combustion reaction.
> Incomplete combustion reaction: Here, limited supply of oxygen is used when fuel burns incompletely to produce carbon monoxide.
> Combustion reaction is an oxidation reaction, which cannot be proceeded in the absence of oxygen. Oxygen is very essential because it is the only gas that supports burning. It is a reaction which only occurs when a substance reacts with oxygen to release energy.

Note:
> Combustion can also be defined as the burning of hydrocarbon. It requires a high temperature. These are exothermic reactions because it releases energy. The products from combustion reaction are in gaseous form.
> Oxygen is very essential in the process of combustion because it supports burning.