How would we represent the oxidation of sucrose to give oxalic acid with nitric acid oxidant?

Question

3859 views around the world

You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License

Answer 1 · 2017-03-08T20:10:23

Sucrose (probably) is oxidized up to oxalic acid

#C_12H_22O_11 +13H_2O rarr 6HO(O=)C-C(=O)OH +36H^+ + 36e^-#

Carbon is formally zerovalent, i.e. a #C^0# oxidation state, and is oxidized to #C^(+III)# in oxalic acid.

And nitrate is reduced to #NO_2#:

#HNO_3 +H^(+) + e^(-) rarr NO_2 + H_2O#

So we add 36 reductions reactions to one of the oxidations:

#C_12H_22O_11 +36HNO_3 rarr 6HO(O=)C-C(=O)OH +36NO_2 + 23H_2O #

As far as I can tell, this reaction is balanced. The reaction represents the oxidation of #C^0# up to #C^(+III)#.