Redox

Redox (portmanteau for reduction-oxidation) reactions refers to all chemical reactions in which atoms have their oxidation state changed. This can be either a simple redox process, such as theoxidation of carbon to yield carbon dioxide (CO2) or the reduction of carbon by hydrogen to yield methane (CH4), or a complex process such as the oxidation of glucose (C6H12O6) in the human body through aseries of complex electron transfer processes.
Redox reactions, or oxidation-reduction reactions, have a number of similarities to acid-base reactions. Fundamentally, redox reactions are a family ofreactions that are concerned with the transfer of electrons between species.
The term comes from the two concepts of reduction and oxidation. It can be explained in simple terms:
Oxidation is theloss of electrons or an increase in oxidation state by a molecule, atom, or ion.
Reduction is the gain of electrons or a decrease in oxidation state by a molecule, atom, or ion.
Like acid-basereactions, redox reactions are a matched set, that is, there cannot be an oxidation reaction without a reduction reaction happening simultaneously. The oxidation alone and the reduction alone are each calleda half-reaction, because two half-reactions always occur together to form a whole reaction. When writing half-reactions, the gained or lost electrons are typically included explicitly in order thatthe half-reaction be balanced with respect to electric charge.
Though sufficient for many purposes, these descriptions are not precisely correct. Oxidation and reduction properly refer to a change inoxidation state — the actual transfer of electrons may never occur. Thus, oxidation is better defined as an increase in oxidation state, and reduction as a decrease in oxidation state. In practice, thetransfer of electrons will always cause a change in oxidation state, but there are many reactions that are classed as "redox" even though no electron transfer occurs (such as those involving...