Oksiditasoa

Oksiditasoa, known in English as the oxidation state or oxidation number, is a chemical bookkeeping concept that assigns a formal charge to each atom in a compound. It describes how many electrons an atom would own if bonds were treated as ionic and helps analyze redox processes.

Oxidation states are assigned by standard rules: the oxidation state of an element in its elemental form is 0; monoatomic ions take the charge of the ion; fluorine is always -1; oxygen is normally -2 (peroxides yield -1 per oxygen); hydrogen is usually +1 (except in hydrides where it is -1). In a neutral molecule the sum is 0, and in a polyatomic ion the sum equals the ion’s charge. For transition metals in complexes, the oxidation state is determined so that the overall charge balances with the ligands.

Examples: in H2O, hydrogen is +1 and oxygen is -2 (sum 0). In Fe2O3, each iron is +3 because total +6 balances the −6 from O3. In sulfate, SO4^2−, oxygen totals −8 and sulfur must be +6 to give the overall −2.

Oxidation state is a formal concept that does not necessarily equal the actual electron distribution in covalent bonds. It is a useful tool for balancing redox equations, analyzing electron transfer in electrochemistry, and tracking oxidation–reduction in biology and materials science, but it can be ambiguous in some coordination environments or complex bonding.