Explain the reasons for the trends in Oxidising characters And also tell how Oxidising characters varies in the periodic table. Please do mention the exception case if there is so?
Dear Student,
Oxidising character means the tendency to oxidise the other substance and itself gets reduced. Therefore, here we are talking about the ease with which an element undergoes reduction. Reduction means gain of electrons, so greater the electron affinity, greater will be tendency of an element to accept electrons. Therefore, the trend of electron affinity will be followed here.More negative the electron affinity, more easily an element gets reduced. On going from left to right across a period, electron affinity decreases i.e. becomes more negative and so oxidising character will increase and from going top to bottom in a group, electron affinity increases i.e. become more positive and so oxidising character will decrease.
Oxidising character means the tendency to oxidise the other substance and itself gets reduced. Therefore, here we are talking about the ease with which an element undergoes reduction. Reduction means gain of electrons, so greater the electron affinity, greater will be tendency of an element to accept electrons. Therefore, the trend of electron affinity will be followed here.More negative the electron affinity, more easily an element gets reduced. On going from left to right across a period, electron affinity decreases i.e. becomes more negative and so oxidising character will increase and from going top to bottom in a group, electron affinity increases i.e. become more positive and so oxidising character will decrease.