Article
Publicly Available
Comprehensive Definition of Oxidation State
Published/Copyright:
March 19, 2016
Oxidation state (OS) is a simple numerical attribute of an atom in a compound, which aids the systematic descriptive chemistry of the elements, scales trends in properties, and tracks key chemistry changes in reactions. Lacking a comprehensive definition, OS has so far been defined via algorithms for its calculation or with postulated values. This document provides a definition of OS based on ionic approximation of chemical bonds. Associated with the definition’s underlying principle of bond-electron allegiance, two general algorithms are outlined for OS determination in a molecule, ion, or a solid, described by a Lewis formula or a bond graph. Typical origins of ambiguous OS values are pointed out, and the relationship between OS and the d-electron configuration of transition metals is commented on.
Comments by 31 May 2016.
Corresponding author: Pavel Karen < pavel.karen@kjemi.uio.no>
Published Online: 2016-3-19
Published in Print: 2016-3-1
©2016 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead - Full issue pdf
- Guest Editorial
- Outer Limits: Pushing the Extremities
- Contents
- Officer’s Column
- Secretary General’s Column
- Features
- The Three-letter Element Symbols:
- Procedures for the Naming of a New Element
- The Chemical Structure Association Trust
- IUPAC Wire
- Discovery and Assignment of Elements with Atomic Numbers 113, 115, 117 and 118
- Open Data in a Big Data World
- UN Secretary General Appoints ICSU Executive Director to Special Advisory Group on the SDGs
- Project Place
- Company Associates Reengineering Project
- Postgraduate Course in Polymer Science, Prague, Czech Republic
- Critically Evaluated ESR (EPR) Spectra of Important Polymerization-related Radicals
- Which Elements Belong in Group 3 of the Periodic Table?
- Making an imPACt
- Discovery of the elements with atomic numbers Z = 113, 115 and 117 (IUPAC Technical Report)
- Discovery of the element with atomic number Z = 118 completing the 7th row of the periodic table (IUPAC Technical Report)
- Glossary of terms used in computational drug design, part II (IUPAC Recommendations)
- Standard electrode potentials involving radicals in aqueous solution: inorganic radicals (IUPAC Technical Report)
- Maritime pollutants in shipping and commercial European ports based on relevant physical and biogeochemical environmental parameters (IUPAC Technical Report)
- Latest Updates from PAC Conferences & More—Brief
- IUPAC Provisional Recommendations
- Glossary of Terms Used in Developmental and Reproductive Toxicology
- How to Name Atoms in Phosphates, Polyphosphates, their Analogues, and Transition State Analogues for Enzyme-catalysed Phosphoryl Transfer Reactions
- Comprehensive Definition of Oxidation State
- Stamps International
- Berzelius and the Chemical Alphabet
- Conference Call
- Latin American Pesticide Residue Workshop—Food and Environment
- Ecological Risk Assessment
- Where 2B & Y
- New Chemistries for Phytomedicines and Crop Protection Chemicals
- Function Through Disorder: Intrinsically Disordered Proteins in Biology and Medicine
- Phosphorus Chemistry
- Self-assembly in the World of Polymers
- Solubility Phenomena
- Blood-Biomaterial Interactions
- CODATA-RDA School of Research Data Science
- 28th National [Turkish] Chemistry Congress with International Participation
- The Power of Norms
- Selenium Research (Se2017)
- Mark Your Calendar
Articles in the same Issue
- Masthead - Full issue pdf
- Guest Editorial
- Outer Limits: Pushing the Extremities
- Contents
- Officer’s Column
- Secretary General’s Column
- Features
- The Three-letter Element Symbols:
- Procedures for the Naming of a New Element
- The Chemical Structure Association Trust
- IUPAC Wire
- Discovery and Assignment of Elements with Atomic Numbers 113, 115, 117 and 118
- Open Data in a Big Data World
- UN Secretary General Appoints ICSU Executive Director to Special Advisory Group on the SDGs
- Project Place
- Company Associates Reengineering Project
- Postgraduate Course in Polymer Science, Prague, Czech Republic
- Critically Evaluated ESR (EPR) Spectra of Important Polymerization-related Radicals
- Which Elements Belong in Group 3 of the Periodic Table?
- Making an imPACt
- Discovery of the elements with atomic numbers Z = 113, 115 and 117 (IUPAC Technical Report)
- Discovery of the element with atomic number Z = 118 completing the 7th row of the periodic table (IUPAC Technical Report)
- Glossary of terms used in computational drug design, part II (IUPAC Recommendations)
- Standard electrode potentials involving radicals in aqueous solution: inorganic radicals (IUPAC Technical Report)
- Maritime pollutants in shipping and commercial European ports based on relevant physical and biogeochemical environmental parameters (IUPAC Technical Report)
- Latest Updates from PAC Conferences & More—Brief
- IUPAC Provisional Recommendations
- Glossary of Terms Used in Developmental and Reproductive Toxicology
- How to Name Atoms in Phosphates, Polyphosphates, their Analogues, and Transition State Analogues for Enzyme-catalysed Phosphoryl Transfer Reactions
- Comprehensive Definition of Oxidation State
- Stamps International
- Berzelius and the Chemical Alphabet
- Conference Call
- Latin American Pesticide Residue Workshop—Food and Environment
- Ecological Risk Assessment
- Where 2B & Y
- New Chemistries for Phytomedicines and Crop Protection Chemicals
- Function Through Disorder: Intrinsically Disordered Proteins in Biology and Medicine
- Phosphorus Chemistry
- Self-assembly in the World of Polymers
- Solubility Phenomena
- Blood-Biomaterial Interactions
- CODATA-RDA School of Research Data Science
- 28th National [Turkish] Chemistry Congress with International Participation
- The Power of Norms
- Selenium Research (Se2017)
- Mark Your Calendar
