What is the difference between complete and gentle oxidation?
Is it that the relevant C atom is not oxidized to its highest potential value during gentle oxidation, but rather only to an intermediate step towards complete oxidation? Would a complete ethanol->ethanoic acid, for example, be
and a gentle one:
Ethanol->Ethanal
(1 rating, 1 votes, rated)You need to be a registered member to rate this.
Loading...
In organic compounds, complete oxidation usually leads to CO2 and H2O, which is not desired in the laboratory (except in Bunsen burner).
I believe, however, your question is about whether a given atom is completely oxidized (from a primary atom a COOH group) or just an aldehyde. The starting material used is, in particular, an alcohol, and if one wishes to oxidize only to the aldehyde, the problem is that the aldehyde is typically oxidized more rapidly than the alcohol; It is therefore necessary to remove the oxidizing agent as mildly as possible, and the aldehyde is best removed from the reaction mixture by distillation.
would therefore be the complete oxidation of alcohol, which with oxygen to carbon dioxide and water? In this case, the oxidation to the carboxylic acid would also be only incomplete, would it?
Yes, I would also pick it up — the oxidation to the acid oxidizes a maximum carbon atom (without breaking the scaffold, oxidation number +III), but the other does not. So it's not complete.
It is, however, the most complete oxidation that can be carried out using conventional laboratory methods with ethanol without destroying the molecule.
Okay, thanks a lot!!