The oxidation of 2-(2-Methoxyethoxy)ethanol and 2-(2-Ethoxyethoxy)ethanol by ditelluratocuprate(III): A kinetic and mechanistic study

The oxidation of 2-(2-methoxyethoxy)ethanol (mee) and 2-(2-ethoxyethoxy) ethanol (eee) by ditelluratocuprate(iii) (dtc) had been studied spectrophotometrically in alkaline medium. the reaction between 20 ° c and 40 ° c showed first-order dependence in dtc and fractional order in mee and eee. the rate constant k o b s of the pseudo-first-order reaction decreased with an increase of [teo2-],whereas adding [oh-] enhanced the constant. in addition,the reaction had a negative salt effect. the rate of eee was higher than that of mee. a suitable assumption involving preequilibriums before the rate-controlling step and a free radical mechanism was proposed,based on the kinetic data. activation parameters and the rate constant of the rate-determining step were calculated. © 2013 jin-huan shan et al.