Question

What is the difference in oxidation states of nitrogen in between hydroxyl amine $\left( {N{H_2}OH} \right)$ and hydrazine $\left( {{N_2}{H_4}} \right)$ ?

Answer 1

The oxidation state can be represented by the element or ion or compound. The number of electrons gained or lost can be an oxidation state. It can be a positive or negative charge. The hydroxyl groups have the oxidation state of $- 1$ and oxygen atoms have the oxidation state of $- 2$ .

Complete answer:
Given compounds are nitrogen containing compounds. The first compound given is hydroxylamine $\left( {N{H_2}OH} \right)$ and the other compound is hydrazine $\left( {{N_2}{H_4}} \right)$ .
Both these compounds have nitrogen atoms but the oxidation state will be different.
Hydroxyl amine has the molecular formula of $N{H_2}OH$ . In this compound hydroxyl group has the oxidation state of $- 1$ and the two hydrogen atoms have the oxidation states of $+ 1$ . Thus, the two hydrogen atoms contribute $+ 2$ .
The nitrogen oxidation state will be $x + 2 + \left( { - 1} \right) = 0 \Rightarrow x = - 1$ . Thus, nitrogen has $- 1$ oxidation state in hydroxylamine.
Hydrazine has the molecular formula of ${N_2}{H_4}$ . In this compound each hydrogen atom has $+ 1$ oxidation state and the two hydrogen atoms have $+ 2$ oxidation state.
The nitrogen oxidation state will be $2x + 4 = 0 \Rightarrow x = - 2$ . Thus, nitrogen has a $- 2$ oxidation state in hydrazine.
Though the nitrogen atom is the same, but has different oxidation states.

Note:
The oxidation state of elemental atoms is zero and the homo diatomic molecules will have the oxidation state will be zero. The homo diatomic molecules such as oxygen gas, nitrogen gas and hydrogen gas will have zero oxidation states. The oxidation number is different from the oxidation state.