View attachment 28566
This is what the textbook says...?
It's not a terminology that I have seen used much, and it's not a terminology I would use because of the potential for confusion. It is also unhelpful in that there are multiple oxidation states and results possible in some cases. Cu
2+ can be reduced to Cu
+ or to Cu. Fe
3+ can be reducecd to Fe
2+ or to Fe. In organic chemistry, the oxidant MnO
4- is reduced to Mn
2+ in acidic media and to MnO
2 in basic conditions.
In acid/base theory, a conjugate pair is precisely defined - it consists of a species and the species it becomes during a Lowry-Bronsted acid/base reaction. Ammonia is a weak base and reacts in water according to:
NH
3 + H
2O ---> NH
4+ + OH
-
Ammonia has acted as a base and accepted a proton, forming its conjugate acid, yielding the conjugate pair NH
3 / NH
4+
Water has acted as an acid and donated a proton, forming its conjugate base, yielding the conjugate pair H
2O / OH
-
Whilst some substances (including water) can belong to two different conjugate pairs (the second being H
2O / H
3O
+), there is still no doubt about which pair is present in a given system and what the possible conjugates of a species are. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the term "conjugate redox pair" as it is being defined here.
It is worth bearing in mind that textbooks can contain mistakes, as well as describe approaches that are more or less helpful than alternatives. If a teacher / textbook wants to adopt this approach, they are free to do so - but that doesn't make it unambiguous "truth."