Why h2o2 not ho

Chemists Joel Rosenthal and Daniel G. Nocera of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology provide this answer. When molecular hydrogen H 2 and oxygen O 2 are combined and allowed to react together, energy is released and the molecules of hydrogen and oxygen can combine to form either water or hydrogen peroxide.

These two processes are represented by the two chemical equations shown at right. Chemists use redox half-reactions to describe thermodynamic processes like the ones embodied by such equations. For both of the reactions shown, the hydrogen molecules are oxidized and the oxygen atoms are reduced. Accordingly, each of the reactions below is described by a combination of two half-reactions--one corresponding to a chemical oxidation and another corresponding to a reduction.

The redox half-reaction for hydrogen oxidation is relatively simple and is shown on the left side of the scheme below. In this oxidation, a molecule of hydrogen gas is ionized to two electrons and two protons. Writing a half-reaction for oxygen reduction is more complicated, since oxygen can be reduced by either one, two or four electrons, as shown by the square redox scheme to the right, below.

In most chemical reactions, molecular oxygen is reduced along the red and blue pathways highlighted in this redox scheme. Sometimes the molecular and empirical formulas are the same. Related questions How do empirical formulas and molecular formulas differ?

How do you find molecular formula of a compound? What is the chemical formula of a diamond? What is the chemical formula of a carbohydrate? What is the empirical formula for valproic acid? What is the empirical formula of magnesium oxide?

Why is the empirical formula not double that of the monosaccharides? Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content. Fetching data from CrossRef.

This may take some time to load. Loading related content. Jump to main content. Jump to site search. You do not have JavaScript enabled. Please enable JavaScript to access the full features of the site or access our non-JavaScript page. Issue 27, From the journal: Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. You have access to this article. Please wait while we load your content