[Daily Question #290] December 7, 2020
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【Daily Question No. 290】December 7, 2020: Concentrated nitric acid is a substance with only oxidizing properties. True or False ( ) Please respond within two days.
It’s incorrect, because everything is relative. Although concentrated HNO3 has a strong oxidizing property, it also has a very weak reducing property. Only F2 possesses oxidizing properties, as there are no more reactive non-metals than it; no substance with stronger oxidizing power exists to oxidize it. It exhibits only negative oxidation states – for example, when it reacts with oxygen it forms dioxygen difluoride, in which it still has a negative oxidation state. Concentrated HNO3, on the other hand, has only weak reducing properties, since there are substances that can oxidize it.