Question

How do you find the oxidation number of $\mathrm{S}$ in${{\mathrm{SO}}_4}^{-2}$?

Answer 1

Oxidation number:

1. The number of electrons that an atom in a molecule can share, lose, or gain during the formation of a chemical bond with another atom is referred to as the oxidation number.
2. The total of an atom's oxidation numbers is zero in a neutral compound. The charge of a charged molecule is equal to the sum of the atom's oxidation numbers.
3. ${{\mathrm{SO}}_4}^{2-}$is a charged compound with a charge of $-2$ so the total oxidation number will be equal to$-2$.
4. Let us take the charge on sulfur to be “x” and we know the charge on oxygen is $-2$ since it has four atoms of oxygen, the total charge of oxygen$=4\times (-2)\Rightarrow -8$
5. Finding the oxidation number of sulfur $x+(-8)=-2$ so the value of x$=+6$.

Therefore, the oxidation number of sulfur$=6$