Oxidation of aldehydes

aldehydes and ketones contain a carbonyl functional group…

C=O

what is the difference between aldehyde and ketone?

aldehydes: C=O at the end of the chain

ketone: C=O somewhere in the chain(not ends)

give name and structural formula of simplest aldehyde and ketone

aldehyde: methanal; HCHO

ketone: propan-2-one; CH3COCH3

oxidation of primary alcohol

primary alcohol —> aldehyde —> carboxylic acid

oxidation of secondary alcohol

secondary alcohol —> ketone —> nothing

oxidation of tertiary alcohol

tertiary alcohol —> nothing

to get aldehyde from oxidation, what do you have to do?

as you oxidise primary alcohol, you have to distill off aldehyde produced as if it oxidises even further, you would get carboxylic acid

when would you use reflux in oxidation process

when you want to oxidise primary alcohol straight into carboxylic acid

note: aldehyde would be still produced, however, as it evaporates, it would condense and drop back into the reaction mixture, to be further oxidised into carboxylic acid

what is the oxidation agent of ocr examboard choice?

acidified potassium dichromate

K2Cr2O7/H2SO4

what is the oxidation agent of ocr examboard choice?

sodium borohydride

NaBH4

why ketones will not oxidise further?

-they don’t have readily available hydrogen atoms to lose

-as a result, only with really strong oxidising agent it is possible to oxidise ketones further

-in this case oxidation is most likely to break C-C bond and destroy the ketone