One-electron reduction

Imagine you have a toy car that needs one battery to work. The car is like a molecule and the battery is like an electron. When you remove one electron from the molecule, it's like taking away the battery from the toy car. This is called one-electron reduction.

Now, molecules need electrons to do important things, like making energy or building new molecules. When a molecule gets one electron, it's called reduced because it has more electrons than before. You can think of it like giving the toy car a new battery so it can keep going.

Sometimes scientists want to do one-electron reduction on purpose. They do this by using special chemicals called reductants, which can give an electron to a molecule that needs it. This helps scientists study how different molecules behave and can help them create new medicines or materials.

In summary, one-electron reduction is when a molecule gets one electron to make it more "energized" and chemically active. This can be done on purpose by scientists using special chemicals called reductants.