Explain the reasons for the trends in Reducing characters And also tell how Reducing characters varies in the periodic table. Please do mention the exception case if there is so?
Dear Student,
Reducing character means the tendency to reduce the other substance and itself get oxidised. So, here we are talking about the tendency of an atom to get oxidised. Oxidation involves loss of electron.This is related with ionisation energy. Lesser the ionisation energy, more easily an atom will undergo oxidation. Therefore, we must go reverse of the trend of ionisation energy. Ionisation energy increases on going from left to right across a period, therefore, reducing character will decrease on going from left to right and ionisation energy decreases on going top to bottom in a group, so reducing character increases on going top to bottom in a group.
Reducing character means the tendency to reduce the other substance and itself get oxidised. So, here we are talking about the tendency of an atom to get oxidised. Oxidation involves loss of electron.This is related with ionisation energy. Lesser the ionisation energy, more easily an atom will undergo oxidation. Therefore, we must go reverse of the trend of ionisation energy. Ionisation energy increases on going from left to right across a period, therefore, reducing character will decrease on going from left to right and ionisation energy decreases on going top to bottom in a group, so reducing character increases on going top to bottom in a group.