The Oxidation of Ethanol
Introduction
In this experiment my aim is to oxidise ethanol (a primary alcohol). I will then test to see if it has been oxidised to ethanal, an aldehyde.
Aldehyde
Or whether it has been oxidised to form ethanoic acid, (a carboxylic acid)
Carboxylic Acid
If the experiment goes to plan then ethanal should be produced. It should work because I will be distilling the ethanal as it is being formed so that it does not come into contact with the acidic sodium dichromate (). If it were to be exposed to this then it would be oxidised further to form the carboxylic acid and the CHO group of ethanal will be oxidised to the COOH group, ethanoic acid.
Observations
During the experiment a number of observations were made indicating how the substances had reacted. These are recorded in the notes below:
Adding the Sodium Dichromate
- As I was adding the sodium dichromate to the sulphuric acid, I recorded that the solution changed from orange to green. This is because an oxidation reaction was taking place. The dichromate got reduced to form chromium ions and the ethanol got oxidised. It was a redox reaction because electrons were both lost and gained.
- As I slowly added the sodium dichromate to the sulphuric acid I recorded that the solution started to bubble, this also showed me that a reaction was taking place
- Furthermore as I was adding the sodium dichromate to the sulphuric acid I noticed that when touching the pear shaped flask it was warm. This proves that the reaction was exothermic.
- After all of the sodium dichromate was added to the sulphuric acid I noticed that the bubbling ceased as the reaction inevitably stopped.
