What are strong and weak oxidising agents?

Hello.





Stating that a chemical is astrong oxidizing agentby itself is quite vague, and is always with respect to some other chemical. You might hear thatKMnO4KMnOX4is a strong oxidizing agent quite commonly in organic chemistry, although thats only true while you're comparing most of the organic compounds and its reagents, like Fehlings Reagent for example. However, if you compareO2F2OX2FX2andKMnO4KMnOX4, thenKMnO4KMnOX4would seem to be aweakoxidizing agent compared to the excessive oxidative ability ofO2F2OX2FX2. You can now clearly see how oxidative strength is a relative term.



Its possible to quantify the oxidative power of a substance. Its measured as the voltage developed between the substance and reduced products when performed in aqueous medium and is calledElectrode Potential. You can learn more about it over here:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrode_potential





Hope this is helpful.