The Mechanisms of Oxidation-Reduction Reactions in Solution

摘要

The modern meanings of oxidation and reduction are much more general. These terms are now used to de scribe any reaction in which electrons are transferred from one substance (the reducing agent) to another (the oxidizing agent). This talk is concerned with the mechanisms of these electron transfer processes, in particular, how the rates of electron transfer depend upon the structures of the substances undergoing oxidation and reduction. It will be shown that the oxidation-reduction re action proceeds in a number of steps, and an attempt will be made to describe the detailed arrangement of the atoms in each of these steps. Attention will be focused on oxidation-reduction reactions involving metal ions, since most of the fundamental work has been done with these systems.