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Inorganic Chemistry

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27 Aug 2008 12:41:42 IST

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Why some have oxidation states as fractions?

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Why some have oxidation states as fractions?

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Krishna Gopal Singh

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Joined: 29 Dec 2006

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27 Aug 2008 15:27:53 IST

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Because in such compounds, The different atoms of same element have different oxidation state. For example in Fe3O4
2 atoms of oxygen have +3 oxidation state and one has +2 So average oxidation state is 8/3

ravi teja

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27 Aug 2008 22:24:05 IST

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in KO2 nd other oxygen compounds will have 1/2 oxidation state....
since it is K+ nd O2-
so two oxygen atoms share +1 oxidation state....so it is +1/2...state...
so many will have fractional oxi state mainly in odd electron bond compounds....chances are more to find are more bt not all odd electron bonds will not have fractional O.S
RATE ME IF MY ANS IS SATISFACTORY...

Harsh Chandalia

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Joined: 27 Aug 2008

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7 Sep 2008 16:09:13 IST

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the oxidation states never ever exist as fraction.the structure of molecule is such that when you try to find out it's oxidation number it comes in fraction this may be called as the apperent oxidation number.this may happen because all the bond of any elemnt may not be of same type.Example whenever a peroxide linkage is present in a molecule .

This is very well explained in the 2 part of ncert textbook of 11 class

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