Will a compound that contains a Fe6+ ion be an oxidizing agent or a reducing agent? Explain.

Video transcript

All right. Hi everyone. So this question says to predict whether a compound containing Cobalt three positive would serve as an oxidizing or a reducing agent support your prediction. The compound with Cobalt three positive A is a potent reducing agent due to its electron rich configuration B is neither an oxidizing nor a reducing agent given its neutral electron affinity CX as an oxidizing agent due due to its high effective nuclear charge or D is a reducing agent as it tends to release electrons. Now recall that a handy acronym for recalling redos reactions is oil rig, which states that oxidation is the loss of electrons. Whereas reduction is the gain of electrons. Now recall that a reducing agent is a substance that reduces another substance, right? So the other substance is gaining electrons because the reducing agent itself gets oxidized, meaning that the reducing agent loses electrons. So in this case, the strength of a reducing agent is often measured by its tendency, tendency to be oxidized. Meaning how likely it is to lose electrons. Now, on the other hand, a substance is considered to be an oxidizing agent if it itself gets reduced, meaning the sub meaning the substance itself gains electrons, right. So here a good way of measuring this is the effective nuclear charge or z effective recall that effective nuclear charge is the net positive charge experienced by an electron in an atom. Now the net positive charge comes from the protons inside of the nucleus. So effective nuclear charge is going to increase for atoms that have more protons. Then they do electrons. Now Cobalt three positive is going to have a relatively high effective nuclear charge because it has three more protons than it does electrons as evidenced by the charge of positive three. So therefore, right, Cobalt three positive is going to have an oxidation state of positive three because it has lost three electrons. This means that Cobalt three positive has the potential to regain those three electrons. And so if Cobalt three positive has the potential to regain those three electrons, this means that Cobalt three positive can be reduced. And if Cobalt three positive can be reduced, then this means it is going to be an effective oxidizing agent because it would remove electrons from a different substance. So our answer here is going to be option c in the multiple choice, right, the compound with Cobalt three positive acts as an oxidizing agent due to its high effective nuclear charge. And with that being said, thank you so very much for watching. And I hope you found this helpful