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What are primary alcohols oxidized to form?

Answer 1

Primary alcohols are oxidized to form aldehydes and carboxylic acids.

Depending on the circumstances of the reaction, primary alcohols can be oxidized to either aldehydes or carboxylic acids.

The reaction stops at the aldehyde stage when pyridinium chlorochromate (PCC), a weak oxidizing agent, is used with dichloromethane.

As an illustration,

#underbrace("CH"_3"CH"_2"CH"_2"OH")_color(red)("propan-1-ol") stackrelcolor(blue)("PCC"color(white)(mm))(→) underbrace("CH"_3"CH"_2"CHO")_color(red)("propanal") #

The alcohol is first oxidized to the aldehyde and then to the carboxylic acid when a potent oxidizing agent, such as potassium dichromate, is added to aqueous sulfuric acid.

#underbrace("CH"_3"CH"_2"CH"_2"CH"_2"OH")_color(red)("butan-1-ol") stackrelcolor(blue)("K"_2"Cr"_2"O"_7, "H"_2"SO"_4color(white)(mm))(→) [underbrace("CH"_3"CH"_2"CH"_2"CHO")_color(red)("butanal")] stackrelcolor(blue)("K"_2"Cr"_2"O"_7, "H"_2"SO"_4color(white)(mm))(→) underbrace("CH"_3"CH"_2"CH"_2"COOH")_color(red)("butanoic acid")#

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Answer 2

Santiago Alfonso

Primary alcohols are oxidized to form aldehydes.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.