Tell whether each of the following reactions is an oxidation, a reduction, or neither: (FIGURE C

Tell whether each of the following reactions is an...

Key Concepts

Electron Transfer

Electron transfer refers to the movement of electrons from one chemical species to another. It is the underlying mechanism of both oxidation and reduction, making it a fundamental concept for classifying reactions.

Redox Reactions

Redox reactions are chemical reactions that involve the transfer of electrons between reactants. They consist of simultaneous oxidation and reduction processes, and understanding electron transfer is key to analyzing these reactions.

Oxidation States

Oxidation states (or oxidation numbers) are a bookkeeping tool used to keep track of electrons in atoms during chemical reactions. They help in identifying the changes in electron ownership that signify oxidation or reduction.

Oxidation

Oxidation is the process in which a substance loses electrons, leading to an increase in its oxidation state. This concept is central to redox reactions and helps in determining which part of a reaction is undergoing oxidation.

Reduction

Reduction involves the gain of electrons by a substance, which results in a decrease in its oxidation state. Recognizing reduction is essential for understanding the complementary nature of redox reactions.

Transcript

00:01 Okay, this problem is asking us to find out whether we are dealing with a reduction, oxidation, or neither of them.

00:06 So a good place to start would be to draw the compounds.

00:10 If you've seen my other videos before, you might have noticed that i really like to draw the skeletal structures, and that is because within organic chemistry, i think that the easiest way to understand mechanisms and reactions in general is to draw the skeletal structures.

00:23 Okay, so that is why i'm drawing these skeletal structures.

00:25 The reagent that facilitates this reaction is cr -03.

00:31 If you've taken organic chemistry before or you recognize cro3, you might recognize it as an oxidizing agent, which means that this is an oxidation reaction.

00:42 If you have no idea what i'm talking about or you've never seen cro3, you might be questioning, how do i know that this is an oxidation reaction? and the answer to that is you look at the hydrogens.

00:52 So attached to the starting material, we see that we have two hydrogens, one, two, at carbon number two.

00:59 So two hydrogens on carbon number two, in the product attached to carbon number two, we only have the single hydrogen.

01:06 So we go from two to one hydrogen.

01:09 That means that we broke a ch bond.

01:14 If we broke a ch bond, that corresponds to an oxidation.

01:21 Okay, next step.

01:24 In this reaction, we are dealing with an alpha beta unsaturated ketone.

01:28 If you've never heard of that term, don't worry, it's not relevant, but basically we have an alken and we have a carbonyl.

01:35 But we're going to react that compound with nh3, and we're going to get this product.

01:49 Okay, so let's identify whether this is an oxidation, reduction, or neither of them.

01:54 A good place to start would be to first look at this alken.

01:57 We see that we have an alken and we ended up with an alken for that particular bond.

02:02 So if we have an alken, if we have a double bond, and we end up with a single bond, you might hypothesize that a reduction occurred, because in order to get rid of a double bond, you might have to add hydrogens across that double bond.

02:14 So let's hypothesize that this is a reduction reaction and see if we're right.

02:20 So we see that we have a hydrogen here and two other hydrogens on the double bond.

02:27 So three hydrogens total, 3h.

02:31 And the product, we have one, two hydrogens, and we also have one, two hydrogens.

02:39 So that means that we have four hydrogens total.

02:45 So looking at a surface level, we went from 3 hydrogens into 4 hydrogens.

02:50 That means that we formed a c -h bond.

02:57 But we have to look at the entire molecule because in the starting material, we only have this alken.

03:04 In the product, we have the formation of a c, that carbon right there, with a nitrogen...

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