Encyclopedia > Half-reaction

  Article Content

Half-reaction

Half reactions are obtained by considering the change in oxidation states of individual substances involved in a reduction/oxidation reaction.

Consider the reaction below:

(1) Cl2 + 2Fe2+ -> 2Cl- + 2Fe3+

The two elements involved, iron and chlorine, each change oxidation state - iron from 2+ to 3+, chlorine from 0 to 1-. There are then effectively two half-reactions occurring. These changes can be represented in formulas by inserting appropriate electrons in to each half-reaction:

 (3) Fe2+ -> Fe3+ + e- 
 (4) Cl2 + 2e- -> 2Cl-   

In the same way given two half-reactions it is possible, with knowledge of appropriate electrode potentials, to arrive at the full (original) reaction.

See also: Electrode potential



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Shinnecock Hills, New York

... the town the population is spread out with 13.8% under the age of 18, 34.0% from 18 to 24, 17.6% from 25 to 44, 20.5% from 45 to 64, and 14.1% who are 65 years of age or ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 24.1 ms