Balancing Redox Reactions 1 of 6- Half-Reaction Method To balance redox reactions , assign oxidation numbers to the reactants and products to determine how many moles of each species are needed to conserve mass and charge. First, separate the equation into two half-reactions, the oxidation portion and the reduction portion. This is called the half-reaction method of balancing redox reactions or the ion-electron method . Each half-reaction is balanced separately and then the equations are added together to give a balanced overall reaction. We want the net charge and number of ions to be equal on both sides of the final balanced equation. For this example, let's consider a redox reaction between KMnO 4 and HI in an acidic solution: MnO 4 - + I - → I 2 + Mn 2+ Balancing Redox Reactions 2 of 6- Separate the Reactions Separate the two half reactions: I - → I 2 MnO 4 - → Mn 2+ Balancing Redox 3 of 6Reactions - Balance the Atoms To balance the atoms of each half-r...