{"id":7128,"date":"2025-05-23T09:38:19","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T09:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yaveni.com\/blog\/?p=7128"},"modified":"2025-05-23T09:38:21","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T09:38:21","slug":"the-oxidation-number-of-s-in-the-thiosulfate-ion-s2o32-is-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/the-oxidation-number-of-s-in-the-thiosulfate-ion-s2o32-is-11\/","title":{"rendered":"The oxidation number of S in the thiosulfate ion S2O3^2- is 11"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The oxidation number of S in the thiosulfate ion S2O3^2- is 11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>-2<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>-4<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>+2<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>+4<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>+6<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\"><strong>The correct answer and explanation is :<\/strong><\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The correct oxidation number of sulfur (S) in the thiosulfate ion, S2O32\u2212\\mathrm{S_2O_3^{2-}}, is <strong>+2<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Explanation:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The thiosulfate ion S2O32\u2212\\mathrm{S_2O_3^{2-}} consists of two sulfur atoms and three oxygen atoms, carrying an overall charge of \u22122-2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To find the oxidation state of sulfur, we apply the following rules and approach:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Oxidation state of oxygen:<\/strong> Oxygen almost always has an oxidation state of \u22122-2, except in peroxides or when bonded to fluorine. In thiosulfate, the three oxygens contribute a total of 3\u00d7(\u22122)=\u221263 \\times (-2) = -6.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Overall charge of the ion:<\/strong> The thiosulfate ion carries a charge of \u22122-2.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Unknown oxidation states:<\/strong> The sulfur atoms can have different oxidation states because thiosulfate is unique\u2014one sulfur is in a different environment than the other.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step-by-step:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s assign oxidation numbers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Let the oxidation state of the central sulfur (the one bonded to oxygens) be xx.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Let the oxidation state of the other sulfur (usually the \u201cterminal\u201d or \u201cbridging\u201d sulfur) be yy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>We know: x+y+3(\u22122)=\u22122x + y + 3(-2) = -2 x+y\u22126=\u22122x + y &#8211; 6 = -2 x+y=4x + y = 4<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Known structural facts:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In thiosulfate, one sulfur atom is bonded to three oxygens (similar to sulfate) and usually has a higher oxidation state.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The other sulfur atom is bonded only to sulfur and contributes differently.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In sulfate SO42\u2212\\mathrm{SO_4^{2-}}, sulfur is +6. Thiosulfate replaces one oxygen with sulfur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Common oxidation states for sulfur in thiosulfate are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>One sulfur at +5<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The other sulfur at \u22121-1<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Sum: +5+(\u22121)=4+5 + (-1) = 4<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This satisfies x+y=4x + y = 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thus, the average oxidation state per sulfur atom is: 42=+2\\frac{4}{2} = +2<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Conclusion:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The <strong>average oxidation number of sulfur in S2O32\u2212\\mathrm{S_2O_3^{2-}} is +2.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This corresponds to the options given.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Additional notes:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The oxidation state is an average or formalism in such ions because the two sulfur atoms have different environments. The sulfur connected to oxygens is more oxidized (+5), and the other sulfur is reduced (-1). But when asked simply, the overall average oxidation number is +2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The oxidation number of S in the thiosulfate ion S2O3^2- is 11. -2 -4 +2 +4 +6 The correct answer and explanation is : The correct oxidation number of sulfur (S) in the thiosulfate ion, S2O32\u2212\\mathrm{S_2O_3^{2-}}, is +2. Explanation: The thiosulfate ion S2O32\u2212\\mathrm{S_2O_3^{2-}} consists of two sulfur atoms and three oxygen atoms, carrying an overall [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7128"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7129,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7128\/revisions\/7129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}