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The Fenton Reaction in Aerated Aqueous Solutions Revisited
Author(s) -
RachmilovichCalis Sandra,
Masarwa Alexandra,
Meyerstein Naomi,
Meyerstein Dan
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
european journal of inorganic chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.667
H-Index - 136
eISSN - 1099-0682
pISSN - 1434-1948
DOI - 10.1002/ejic.200500097
Subject(s) - chemistry , aqueous solution , reagent , aeration , yield (engineering) , limiting , alcohol , reaction rate constant , redox , reaction rate , saturation (graph theory) , inorganic chemistry , organic chemistry , catalysis , kinetics , thermodynamics , mechanical engineering , physics , mathematics , quantum mechanics , combinatorics , engineering
The oxidation of alcohols in aerated acidic aqueous solutions by the Fenton reagent is a chain reaction. The length of the chain depends linearly on the number of CH n OR ( n = 1 or 2) groups in the alcohol. The reaction is accelerated by increasing the concentration of Fe(H 2 O) 6 2+ , but this cation is also active in at least one of the termination steps of the chain reaction. Addition of ethanol to a solution containing sucrose shortens the chain length. Saturation with dioxygen, instead of air, increases the chain length. An increase in alcohol concentration increases the chain length up to a limiting value. A complicated mechanism, which is in agreement with all these observations, is proposed. However, efforts to simulate the mechanism succeed only in simulating the Fe(H 2 O) 6 3+ yield, but indicate that the observed process is considerably faster than the predicted one. In the latter the rate‐determining step is the Fenton reaction, the rate constant of which is well known. (© Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2005)