Question

Name a nonmetal which shows reducing property.

Answer 1

Hint: The tendency of an element to lose electrons is known as its reducing property. Due to this property, the element or substance undergoes self-oxidation whereas the tendency of an element to gain electrons is known as its oxidizing property and due to this, the substance undergoes self-reduction.

Complete answer:
In the modern periodic table, as we move from left to right in a period, the oxidizing property goes on increasing whereas the reducing property decreases along a period. The factors affecting the oxidizing and reducing property are as follows:
1. Ionization potential: The elements with greater ionization potential have smaller atomic size and a greater number of valence electrons which tend to accept electrons and thus, show oxidizing properties.
2. Electronegativity: As electronegativity increases along the period, the tendency of the element to gain electrons also increases which leads to increase in the oxidizing power of the substance.
3. Metallic and non-metallic character: With a gradual decrease in the metallic character of an element along the period, the electronegativity of the elements increases. Thus, on decreasing metallic character, reducing property of the elements also decreases.
Some of the common examples of elements which show reducing and oxidizing properties are as follows:
Reducing property- Metals include $ Na $ , $ Fe $ , $ Zn $ and nonmetals include $ C $ , $ S $ , $ H $ .
Oxidizing property- $ O $ , $ Cl $ , $ Br $
Thus, an example of a non-metal which shows reducing property is sulphur because it has five electrons in its valence shell with comparatively smaller size and higher ionization potential due to which the tendency to lose electrons reduces and thus, sulphur shows reducing property.

Note:
It is important to note that elements belonging from group 18 i.e., inert gases neither show oxidizing property nor reducing property because of very high ionization enthalpies and complete octets, they do not have tendency to lose or gain electrons.