Question

${H_2}{O_2}$ acts as a strong oxidising agent in:

Answer 1

Hint : Oxidation state of an element tells us about the tendency of the element to lose electrons. The oxidation state also tells us about if the element has actually lost electrons or it has gained electrons. If the state is positive then it gains that many electrons and negative then it has stained that number of electrons.

Complete Step By Step Answer:
Oxidation state of an element tells us about the number of electrons an element can gain or lose.
Oxidation state is related to the element’s capability to lose or gain electrons. The tendency of losing electrons depends on the number of electrons in its last shell. If they are less than half of the electrons the last orbital can accommodate, then it has a greater tendency to lose electrons. If the last orbital has more than half of the electrons to be present in the last orbital then we can say that it has greater tendency to lose electrons.
Oxygen is a highly electronegative element having six electrons in its outermost orbital. It has the tendency to gain two electrons readily while, it also has the tendency to lose electrons in presence of highly electronegative elements. Which have greater electronegativity than itself.
Oxidising agent is defined as those compounds which on reaction with a compound oxidises it, that is the compound loses electrons and the oxidising agent itself gets reduced, that is out gains electrons.
Now in ${H_2}{O_2}$ , oxygen is present in $- 1$ and it can be reduced to $- 2$ , that is gain one electron.
Now it acts as an oxidising agent in both acidic and basic medium, that is in acidic medium it gains an electron and becomes water while in basic medium it accepts the electrons and forms hydroxide ions.
Therefore, in acidic and basic medium ${H_2}{O_2}$ acts as an oxidising agent as it gets the system to gain an electron and no other more electronegative element is present, unhindered.

Note :
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