reducers

[akcapr]

How can you tell which is a stronger reducer? For example, the question was which is the best reducer: Iron, Osmium, Ruthnium or some other metal. The point is, how can you tell? I kno alkali metals are good reducers and as they get bigger they get even better, but does that have a correlation to all of the other metals?

 

btw the answer was Fe

[woelen]

For the transition metals you can say that the metals of the first row are much better reductors than the corresponding metals of the second and third rows. This is true for all of these metals (i.e. Sc to Zn and all metals in between, including Fe).

[jdurg]

I believe that you can also look at the electronegativities of the metals. The lower in magnitude the electronegativity is, the greater the reducer it is. Look at fluorine gas as an example. It has the highest electronegativity, therefore it is the worst reducing agent in existance. Cesium is one of the best reducers because it has such a miniscule electronegativity.

[akcapr]

Are there any patterns in electronegativity for the transition metals?

[budullewraagh]

i'd look at electromotive potentials, not electronegativities.