Question #76b47

1 Answer
Oct 18, 2015

See explanation.

Explanation:

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This is an oxidation reaction of organic compounds (alcohols, ketones and aldehydes) by dichromate #Cr_2O_7^(2-)# in an acidic medium.

For the oxidation to happen, there should be a hydrogen atom at the #alpha# position to the oxygen, which means that it only works for primary and secondary alcohols and aldehydes, however, it does not work for ketones and tertiary alcohols (Check figure below).
enter image source here