Editing Oxidation state (section)

=== Early days ===
Oxidation itself was first studied by [[Antoine Lavoisier]], who defined it as the result of reactions with [[oxygen]] (hence the name).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/lavoisier.html|title=Antoine Laurent Lavoisier The Chemical Revolution – Landmark – American Chemical Society|website=American Chemical Society|access-date=14 July 2018|archive-date=5 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210105040544/https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/lavoisier.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://chem125-oyc.webspace.yale.edu/125/history99/2Pre1800/Lavoisier/Nomenclature/Lavoisier_on_Elements.html|title=Lavoisier on Elements|website=Chem125-oyc.webspace.yale.edu|access-date=14 July 2018|archive-date=13 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200613025757/http://chem125-oyc.webspace.yale.edu/125/history99/2Pre1800/Lavoisier/Nomenclature/Lavoisier_on_Elements.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The term has since been generalized to imply a ''formal'' loss of electrons. Oxidation states, called ''oxidation grades'' by [[Friedrich Wöhler]] in 1835,<ref>{{cite book|first=F.|last=Wöhler|title=Grundriss der Chemie: Unorganische Chemie|trans-title=Foundations of Chemistry: Inorganic Chemistry|publisher=Duncker und Humblot|location=Berlin|date=1835|page=4}}</ref> were one of the intellectual stepping stones that [[Dmitri Mendeleev]] used to derive the [[periodic table]].<ref>{{Greenwood&Earnshaw|pages=33}}</ref> [[William B. Jensen]]<ref>{{cite journal|author1-link=William B. Jensen|first=W. B.|last=Jensen|title=the origin of the oxidation-state concept|journal=J. Chem. Educ.|volume=84|issue=9|date=2007|pages=1418–1419|doi=10.1021/ed084p1418|bibcode=2007JChEd..84.1418J}}</ref> gives an overview of the history up to 1938.