What happens to the excess Fe3+ during quinhydrone oxidation?
Good morning,
Suppose I added a FeCl3 solution to the quinhydrone(aq).
The quinhydrone should react with the Cl to form quinone and HCl, releasing hydrogen.
But what happens to the Fe3+ cations?
Do they react with water to form Fe(OH)3+ 3H+?
In no case is there HCl formed. Hydroquinone is not such a strong acid to protonate a chloride ion, not at all in aqueous solution. (HCl dissociates in water, why should this form here at once).
What happened instead is that the hydroquinone reduces the iron and forms benzoquinone, along with an acidic solution.
That is exactly how this chinhydron is also produced, namely by adding so much iron(III) chloride to a hydroquinone solution that it is not possible to oxidize everything to hydroquinone to benzoquinone and form these pairs from the two.
Is the formation of benzoquinone from chinhydron not associated with an H+ release so that the oxygen can form a double bond to the ring?
Where are the electrons that oxidize the Fe3+ (probably to Fe2+?)?
Also from hydroquinone. If you’re both H+ off the hydroquinone, you’ve got two O- on it first. And now you have 2 electrons too much to form 2 double bonds (see the oxidation numbers of hydroquinone and benzoquinone, you see that well). They have to go somewhere.
Oh, God, I’m stupid… now I see my mistake.
Thank you.