Can we balanced carbon oxidation reactions? For instance could we stoichiometrically represent the oxidation of isopropyl alcohol to give acetone by the action of permanganate ion?
1 Answer
Explanation:
Secondary alcohols can be oxidized to ketones. The oxidizing agent is here unspecified, and could be a high-valent metal salt, i.e.
It is uncommon to assign oxidation numbers to carbons in organic molecules, however, here the ipso carbon has clearly been oxidized to give the ketone, and I think the given oxidation numbers are correct.
ANd for every oxidation there is a corresponding reduction, for instance....
If I wanted to write a stoichiometric reaction, I would simply cross-multiply
So
to give finally....
....which (I think) is balanced with respect to mass and charge.