why do good oxidizing agents easily reduce?
Good (strong) oxidizing agents are easily reduced. What you said I think differs slightly from that. If they are strong oxidizing agents, they easily oxidize other ions and in doing so the oxidizing agent is reduced. If this isn't quite what you were looking for, please rephrase and respond to this post.
You are correct, my previous statement was not accurate and I apologize for the confusion. Strong oxidizing agents are actually easily reduced, not oxidized. Let me explain why.
To understand why strong oxidizing agents are easily reduced, we need to first understand the concept of redox reactions. A redox reaction involves the transfer of electrons from one species to another. In these reactions, one compound loses electrons (is oxidized) and another compound gains those electrons (is reduced).
Strong oxidizing agents have a high tendency to gain electrons, which allows them to effectively oxidize other compounds. These oxidizing agents themselves become reduced because they are gaining electrons. This reduction of the oxidizing agent allows it to effectively transfer those electrons to other compounds.
For example, let's consider the reaction between potassium permanganate (KMnO4) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). In this reaction, KMnO4 acts as the oxidizing agent. It accepts electrons from H2O2, reducing itself to a lower oxidation state, in this case, Mn2+.
2 KMnO4 + 3 H2O2 → 2 MnO2 + 2 KOH + 2 H2O + O2
Here, KMnO4 (the oxidizing agent) gains electrons from H2O2 and is reduced to MnO2. The electrons that KMnO4 accepts from H2O2 are used to form MnO2, while the remaining products are potassium hydroxide (KOH), water (H2O), and oxygen gas (O2).
In summary, strong oxidizing agents are easily reduced because they have a high affinity for electrons. This enables them to effectively oxidize other compounds by accepting electrons and becoming reduced themselves.