Question

Oxidation number of Sulfur in SO2

Answer 1

The oxidation number of sulfur in SO2 is +4. This is because oxygen is assigned an oxidation number of -2, and the sum of oxidation numbers in a neutral molecule is always zero. Therefore, in the SO2 molecule, the two oxygen atoms have a combined oxidation number of -4, so the sulfur atom must have an oxidation number of +4 to balance the overall charge of the molecule.