What is the oxidation number of oxygen in peroxides?

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What is the oxidation number of oxygen in peroxides?

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Answer 1 · 2017-03-02T21:17:40

$- 1$ $-1$

Explanation:

Oxygen almost always has an oxidation number of $- 2$ $-2$ , except in peroxides.

A peroxide is a molecule which includes $- O - O -$ $-O-O-$ , like hydrogen peroxide, $H O O H$ $HOOH$ .

In hydrogen peroxide, the overall charge is $0$ $0$ , so all the oxidation numbers must add up to $0$ $0$ . The oxidation number for hydrogen is always $+ 1$ $+1$ , so

$H O O H = 0 = 1 \times 2 + X \times 2$ $HOOH = 0 = 1 xx 2 + X xx 2$

where $X$ $X$ is the oxidation number for oxygen.

From this, we can deduce that $X = - 1$ $X=-1$ .

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What is the oxidation number of oxygen in peroxides?

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