Balancing Redox Reactions (Oxidation Number Method)
1)
Assign oxidation numbers to all elements in the chemical equation.
2)
Identify the oxidized and reduced species.
3)
Draw tie-lines to identify the oxidation and reduction steps.
4)
If necessary, adjust the coefficients within the redox pairs so that the atom that
changes oxidation number is balanced.
5)
Compute the number of electrons lost in the oxidation step and the number of
electrons gained in the reduction step from the changes in oxidation numbers.
6)
Multiply one, or both, of the numbers from step 5 by appropriate integers to
make the number of electrons lost equal to the number of electrons gained, and
use these factors as balancing coefficients.
7)
Complete the balancing of the equation by inspection.