When balancing the following, what is being reduced, what are the reducing agents, and what is the initial and final oxidation states of the reduction agent?
Fe3O4(s) + C(s) > CO2 (g) + Fe
Carbon is being oxidized and Fe3O4 is being reduced.
Reducing agents are the same as what is oxidized.
What do you not understand about determining oxidation states?
http://www.chemteam.info/Redox/Redox-Rules.html
So Fe304 is being reduced and C is the reducing agent? Would the initial and final oxidation states be C and 2C?
To balance the given chemical equation: Fe3O4(s) + C(s) > CO2(g) + Fe, we need to determine what is being reduced, what are the reducing agents, and what are the initial and final oxidation states of the reducing agent.
In this equation, carbon (C) is being oxidized because its oxidation state increases from 0 to +4 in CO2. Therefore, carbon is the reducing agent.
To determine the initial and final oxidation states of the reducing agent (carbon), we can assign oxidation states to each element in the equation.
The oxidation state of Fe in Fe3O4 is +8/3 overall. Since there are four atoms of Fe in Fe3O4, each Fe atom has an oxidation state of +8/4 = +2.
The oxidation state of O in Fe3O4 is -2 overall. Since there are four oxygen atoms in Fe3O4, each oxygen atom has an oxidation state of -2/4 = -0.5.
The oxidation state of C in C(s) is 0 in its elemental form.
The oxidation state of O in CO2 is -2 overall. Since there are two oxygen atoms in CO2, each oxygen atom has an oxidation state of -2/2 = -1.
The oxidation state of Fe in Fe is 0 since it is in its elemental form.
Now that we have the initial and final oxidation states of C, we can determine the changes in oxidation states. The initial oxidation state of C is 0, and the final oxidation state is +4 in CO2. Therefore, carbon is undergoing an oxidation state change from 0 to +4 and is being oxidized.
In summary:
- Carbon (C) is being oxidized and is the reducing agent.
- The initial oxidation state of carbon is 0, and the final oxidation state is +4.