Is H2SO4 both oxidizing and reducing agent?

Is H2SO4 both oxidizing and reducing agent?

H2SO4 IS A OXIDISING AGENT, H2S IS A REDUCING AGENT, WHIL SO2 IS A REDUCING AGENT. Hot concentrated sulphuric acid is a moderately strong oxidising agent.

Is sulfuric acid oxidising?

The concentrated sulphuric acid can act both as an acid and as an oxidising agent. The concentrated sulphuric acid gives a hydrogen ion to the halide ion to produce a hydrogen halide. All of the halide ions (fluoride, chloride, bromide and iodide) behave similarly.

How is sulphuric acid an oxidising or reducing agent?

So sulphuric acid in concentrated forms gives nacent oxygen and forms sulphurous acid. This nacent oxygen act as oxidizing agent. Read remaining answer here. Similarly one may ask, is Sulphuric acid an oxidising or reducing agent?

Which is an oxidizing agent or reducing agent?

For example, HBr a strong reducing agent, can reduce H2SO4 to SO2. You see here that the oxidation state of the sulfur drops to +4, indicating that it is an oxidiser in this reaction. More often than not, it is an oxidising agent. The sulfur is already at its highest oxidation state of +6.

How does H2SO4 act as a reducing agent?

In H2SO4 sulphur is in +6 oxidation state. To act a a reducing agent one should lose electrons i.e; the atom should go from lower positive oxidation state to higher positive oxidation state. As sulphur is already in it’s maximum possible oxidation state in H2SO4, further loss of electrons is not possible. So it can’t act as a reducing agent.

Why is sulfuric acid a good dehydrating agent?

Sulfuric acid (or sulphuric acid), like many ionic salts, have strong hydroscopic properties. For the case of sulfuric acid, it readily protonates water due to the reaction being thermodynamically very favourable. The sulfate ion is also very good at holding water by itself as it is a very polar molecule.