{"id":222015,"date":"2025-05-30T19:47:25","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T19:47:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/?p=222015"},"modified":"2025-05-30T19:47:27","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T19:47:27","slug":"what-is-the-oxidation-number-of-carbon-in-magnesium-bicarbonate-mghco32-4-0-5-1-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/2025\/05\/30\/what-is-the-oxidation-number-of-carbon-in-magnesium-bicarbonate-mghco32-4-0-5-1-2\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the oxidation number of Carbon in magnesium bicarbonate, Mg(HCO3)2? +4 0 +5 +1 -2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/image-551-1024x437.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-222016\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-ast-global-color-1-color\">The Correct Answer and Explanation is:<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Correct Answer: +4<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Explanation:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>To determine the oxidation number of <strong>carbon<\/strong> in <strong>magnesium bicarbonate<\/strong>, Mg(HCO\u2083)\u2082, we need to examine the structure and charges within the compound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 1: Understand the compound<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Magnesium bicarbonate is composed of:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>One <strong>magnesium ion (Mg\u00b2\u207a)<\/strong>,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Two <strong>bicarbonate ions (HCO\u2083\u207b)<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Each bicarbonate ion contains:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>1 hydrogen (H)<\/strong>,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>1 carbon (C)<\/strong>,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>3 oxygen (O)<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The overall charge on the bicarbonate ion is <strong>\u20131<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 2: Assign known oxidation numbers<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>In HCO\u2083\u207b:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Hydrogen (H) has an oxidation number of <strong>+1<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Oxygen (O) generally has an oxidation number of <strong>\u20132<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Let the oxidation number of carbon be <strong>x<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Using the rule that the sum of oxidation numbers in an ion equals its charge:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>(+1) + x + 3(\u20132) = \u20131\n+1 + x \u2013 6 = \u20131\nx \u2013 5 = \u20131\nx = +4\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>Therefore, <strong>the oxidation number of carbon in HCO\u2083\u207b is +4<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 3: Confirm with the full compound<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Since Mg\u00b2\u207a is balanced by two HCO\u2083\u207b ions (each with a \u20131 charge), the compound is neutral, confirming our assumption about the ion charges and structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Summary:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The oxidation number of carbon in magnesium bicarbonate, Mg(HCO\u2083)\u2082, is <strong>+4<\/strong>. This is consistent with the general chemistry of the bicarbonate ion, where carbon is bonded to three oxygen atoms (one with a double bond, one single-bonded to an OH group, and one single-bonded with a negative charge). The calculation balances all oxidation numbers with the ion\u2019s net charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/learnexams-banner7-136.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-222017\"\/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Correct Answer and Explanation is: Correct Answer: +4 Explanation: To determine the oxidation number of carbon in magnesium bicarbonate, Mg(HCO\u2083)\u2082, we need to examine the structure and charges within the compound. Step 1: Understand the compound Magnesium bicarbonate is composed of: Each bicarbonate ion contains: The overall charge on the bicarbonate ion is \u20131. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exams-certification"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222015\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}