Term for a chemical reaction in which an atom or molecule releases electrons (oxidises) and another substance accepts these electrons (reduces). Oxidation is therefore always associated with a reduction. Both processes together are partial reactions of a so-called redox reaction. Originally, oxidation was exclusively understood as the chemical reaction of a substance with oxygen. The term was later expanded to include reactions in which hydrogen atoms are removed from a compound (dehydrogenation).
Oxidising agent
Oxidising agents are substances that can easily accept electrons, such as oxygen, chlorine and fluorine. Oxidising agents are reduced during the redox reaction itself. And reducing agents are those substances that easily release electrons, e.g. hydrogen, carbon and base metals such as iron, magnesium and sodium. The reducing agents are oxidised during the redox reaction itself. In winemaking, oxidation should only take place in as precisely dosed and controlled a form as possible, as uncontrolled wine defects often occur. It is thanks to Emperor Napoleon III (1808-1873), so to speak, that the mostly harmful influence of too much oxygen was clarified. In 1863, he commissioned the chemist Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) to investigate why so much wine spoilt. The influence of microorganisms was still completely unknown at the time. Pasteur discovered that too much air favours the spread of acetobacter (acetic acid bacteria) and thus turns wine into vinegar. However, he also discovered that a small amount of oxygen can have a positive influence on development.
