Oxidation State, A Long-Standing Issue! #chempaperaday 234

Oxidation state is both the simplest and the hardest concepts of chemistry. To be honest, sometimes (maybe more often than sometimes), I get confused too.  In fact, you can even find slightly different definitions of oxidation state depending on what you are trying to reach in the end. To be honest, I found this paper a little bit confusing in the beginning. It's not the author's fault of course. Once again, oxidation state is not really straightforward. Overall, I think it is a nice paper to read and a good summary of interesting examples.

BONUS : It's open access.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201407561/abstract