Is there a way to predict whether a reaction is going to be redox or not?
For example if the reactants are SO2 and NaOH and I dont know the equation of reaction, is there a way to deduce the ions of the products?
@aaronq @ParthKohli

Question

Is there a way to predict whether a reaction is going to be redox or not?
For example if the reactants are SO2 and NaOH and I dont know the equation of reaction, is there a way to deduce the ions of the products?
@aaronq @ParthKohli

parthkohli · Answer

This particular case seems to be fitted more along acid-base reactions.$$\rm 2NaOH + SO_2\to Na_2SO_3 + H_2O$$

faiqraees · Answer

@ParthKohli I know that. I want to know what if the reaction equation wasnt easy to find out

parthkohli · Answer

It comes with experience, really. You need to identify if two or more different species can exist in different oxidation states. There are some well-known compounds out there such as $\rm H_2O_2, KMnO_4, K_2CrO_4, Na_2S_2O_3$ that are really nice agents, so their presence in the reaction will also help.

aaronq · Answer

You can predict whether or not two reactants will exchange electrons (using their reduction potentials), but most of the time to find the reaction equation, as previously mentioned by Parth, you used previously seen behaviours. You may write a reaction and think it's plausible but nature doesn't adhere to pen and paper ideas, chemistry is a highly experimental science and all of the reactions you write down were figured out by someone actually mixing things together.