Welcome to our exploration of oxidation reactions! Oxidation is a fundamental chemical process where a substance loses electrons or increases its oxidation state. Let's visualize this concept with an atom losing an electron to become a positively charged ion.
Now let's understand oxidation in terms of oxidation states. The oxidation state represents the hypothetical charge an atom would have if all its bonds were completely ionic. When iron metal with oxidation state zero loses two electrons, it becomes iron two plus ion with oxidation state plus two. This increase from zero to plus two demonstrates oxidation.