Question

The most powerful oxidising agent of the following is?
\[a.{\text{ }}{I_2}\]
 \[b.{\text{ }}B{r_2}\]
\[c.{\text{ }}C{l_2}\]
\[d.{\text{ }}{F_2}\]

Answer 1

Hint: Oxidising and reducing agents are key terms used in describing the reactants in redox reactions that transfer electrons between reactants to form products. There is a gain of electrons and reduced in a chemical reaction.

Complete answer:
There are two factors which determine the power of oxidising agents.
First is the heat of hydration. In simple words, it is the ions or molecules of the solvents which get attracted and associated towards the molecules or ions of solute. When this phenomenon happens, there is dissipating oh heat. It is the hydration enthalpy in which the amount of heat that is dissipated or absorbed when one molecule or ions undergoes the hydration process
For halogens, the heat of hydration decreases down the group. Hence, it is maximum for fluorine.
The second factor is bond dissociation energy. It refers to the amount of energy that is required during an endothermic process to break a chemical bond and produce two separated atoms, each with one electron of the first mutual pair bond dissociation enthalpy can be characterized as the standard change in enthalpy when a bond is broken using homolytic separation.
It is lowest for fluorine. Hence, the most powerful oxidising agent is fluorine.

Note:
These two factors make fluorine the most powerful oxidising agent, even though we know that its electron affinity is lower than chlorine. In Hydration, It’s a part of dissolution of energy in which water is kept as a solvent.