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Topic: Hypochlorite Oxidation Lab Question  (Read 10400 times)

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Offline Anooshir

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Hypochlorite Oxidation Lab Question
« on: July 11, 2006, 04:06:43 PM »
The Question is:

In the hypochlorite oxidation of cyclohexanol to cyclohexanone, what purpose does the acetic acid serve?

I don't really know what the answer is - my idea is that it is to create a more acidic environment for the hypochlorite oxidation reaction to occur, but I can't exactly pinpoint why.  Any help would be appreciated.  Thank you.

Offline Donaldson Tan

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Re: Hypochlorite Oxidation Lab Question
« Reply #1 on: July 12, 2006, 07:43:45 AM »
cyclohexanol would be immiscible with pure water, isn't it?

acetic acid also provides H+ to catalyse the oxidation reaction.

"Say you're in a [chemical] plant and there's a snake on the floor. What are you going to do? Call a consultant? Get a meeting together to talk about which color is the snake? Employees should do one thing: walk over there and you step on the friggin� snake." - Jean-Pierre Garnier, CEO of Glaxosmithkline, June 2006

Offline dls

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Re: Hypochlorite Oxidation Lab Question
« Reply #2 on: August 27, 2006, 06:41:00 AM »
The Question is:

In the hypochlorite oxidation of cyclohexanol to cyclohexanone, what purpose does the acetic acid serve?

I don't really know what the answer is - my idea is that it is to create a more acidic environment for the hypochlorite oxidation reaction to occur, but I can't exactly pinpoint why.  Any help would be appreciated.  Thank you.
A long time ago I learned that the active species in hypochlorite oxidations is actually the acid form.  So, the previous answer was essentially correct - acid catalysis.

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