Question

Differentiate Oxidising agent and Reducing agent

Answer 1

Oxidizing agent and Reducing agent

Oxidizing agent	Reducing agent
Substances that bring about oxidation are known as oxidizing agents.	Substances that bring about reduction are known as reducing agents.
for example, consider the reaction ,$$\begin{gathered} \mathrm{CuO}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)+{\mathrm{H}}_2\left(\mathrm{g}\right)\to \mathrm{Cu}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)+{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}\left(\mathrm{l}\right) \\ \underset{\mathrm{Addition}\mathrm{of}\mathrm{oxygen}:\mathrm{oxidation}}{\to } \end{gathered}$$ H2 has added oxygen to it from H2O. Thus, H2 has been oxidized to H2O	for example, consider the reaction ,$$\begin{gathered} \stackrel{\mathrm{Removal}\mathrm{of}\mathrm{oxygen}:\mathrm{reduction}}{\to } \\ \mathrm{CuO}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)+{\mathrm{H}}_2\left(\mathrm{g}\right)\to \mathrm{Cu}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)+{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}\left(\mathrm{l}\right) \end{gathered}$$ CuO has eliminated oxygen from it to Cu. so we can say that CuO has been reduced to Cu
Here, CuO is the oxidising agent	Here, H2 is the reducing agent