Rank each of the following series of compounds in order of increasing oxidation level: (FIGURE C

Rank each of the following series of compounds in order of...

Key Concepts

Oxidation State

The oxidation state (or oxidation number) is a numerical value assigned to an atom in a compound that reflects the degree of oxidation—or loss of electrons—it has undergone relative to its elemental state. This concept is fundamental for understanding redox reactions and comparing the electron density around atoms in different molecular environments.

Oxidation Level of Carbon in Organic Compounds

In organic chemistry, the oxidation level of carbon is used to indicate the degree to which a carbon atom has been oxidized within various functional groups. This is typically determined by the number and type of bonds between the carbon and more electronegative atoms such as oxygen, with an increase in oxygen atoms (or decrease in attached hydrogen atoms) corresponding to a higher oxidation level.

Trends in Functional Group Oxidation

Different organic functional groups represent varying oxidation levels for their constituent carbon atoms. By systematically analyzing these groups—for example, from alcohols to aldehydes to carboxylic acids—one can rank compounds in order of increasing oxidation. This trend is important for understanding reaction pathways such as oxidation and reduction processes in organic synthesis.

Transcript

00:01 Okay, this problem is asking us to rank the compounds according to their oxidation levels.

00:05 So, for my purposes, i'm going to say that 1 equals most oxidized.

00:12 This means that 4 would be least oxidized, or at least most reduced.

00:17 Okay, so how do we think about oxidation levels in the context of different molecules? a good way to start would be to analyze the hydrogens.

00:28 So, for example, this compound, this cyclohexane, has two hydrogens associated with every carbon.

00:36 So i'm going to write down hydrogens for each of them.

00:38 Pretend that these each have hydrogens.

00:40 So that means that it has two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve hydrogens.

00:45 Twelve hydrogens, because we have six carbons, each of them have two.

00:49 Okay, for this one, we have only one hydrogen associated with each carbon.

00:54 That's because they each have double bonds.

00:58 This one we only have six hydrogens.

01:00 So comparing this one to this one, this one would be more reduced, meaning that this one is more oxidized.

01:07 This one is more reduced because it has more hydrogens.

01:10 Reduced is basically a term for having more hydrogens.

01:14 Okay, so we know that this one is more oxidized.

01:19 So for now i'm going to label this one and this one too, because one is most oxidized.

01:24 Okay, now let's look at this next one.

01:28 So, associated with this carbon, we have a carbon -oxygen bond.

01:32 And that is not considered a hydrogen.

01:34 So for right now, i'm going to skip over that.

01:37 Instead, i'm going to analyze the hydrogens.

01:39 So, hydrogens, hydrogens, hydrogens, hydrogens, hydrogens, hydrogens, and hydrogens.

01:45 So let's look at how many hydrogens...

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