Oxidation of a primary alcohol with Cr2O7^2-/H+ under distillation yields which product?

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Multiple Choice

Oxidation of a primary alcohol with Cr2O7^2-/H+ under distillation yields which product?

When a primary alcohol is oxidized with acidified dichromate, the first oxidation product is the aldehyde. The key idea here is that aldehydes are more volatile than carboxylic acids, so if the aldehyde formed is continuously removed from the reaction mixture by distillation, it doesn’t stay long enough to be oxidized further. This keeps the process at the aldehyde stage rather than going all the way to a carboxylic acid. If distillation weren’t used, the oxidant would keep pushing the reaction to the carboxylic acid instead. So the product you collect under distillation with this reagent is the aldehyde.

When a primary alcohol is oxidized with acidified dichromate, the first oxidation product is the aldehyde. The key idea here is that aldehydes are more volatile than carboxylic acids, so if the aldehyde formed is continuously removed from the reaction mixture by distillation, it doesn’t stay long enough to be oxidized further. This keeps the process at the aldehyde stage rather than going all the way to a carboxylic acid. If distillation weren’t used, the oxidant would keep pushing the reaction to the carboxylic acid instead. So the product you collect under distillation with this reagent is the aldehyde.

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