What are the definitions of oxidation and reduction involving electrons?

Question

And how do you Identify oxidizing and reducting agents in chemical reactions.

Answer 1

OILRIG - Oxidation Is Loss (of electrons), Reduction Is Gain (of electrons).

In any given redox reaction, the species that becomes oxidised is the reducing agent, the the species being reduced is the oxidation agent. To find this out look at the oxidation numbers of the species. An increase means it has oxidised (hence it is the reducing agent) and a decrease means it has reduced (hence the oxidising agent).

Answer 2

Loss of electrons is oxidation, gain of electrons is reduction. There are lots of ways to remember this, but LEO GER is one way.

In any redox reaction, the oxidizing agent will become reduced, and the reducing agent will become oxidized. The oxidizing agent causes the oxidation of something else, and so it must gain electrons (become more reduced). Same thing with the reducing agent--it causes the reduction of something else, and so it will become more oxidized in the reaction. Both the reducing and oxidizing agents are on the reactant side of the equation.

Answer 3

The way that I always remembered it was "The lion roars". Actually LEO goes GER. Loses electrons is oxidized and gaining electrons is reduced. It is basically opposites, Ill explain. If the charge goes up then you are losing electrons which means it is oxidized, and it is the reducing agent. If the charge goes down then you are gaining electrons which means it is reduced and it is the oxidizing agent. Hope this helps, it has not let me down yet.