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Topic: Tollens'+HCOOH  (Read 1974 times)

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Offline Rutherford

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Tollens'+HCOOH
« on: December 07, 2012, 03:38:04 PM »
Could someone tell me in which molar ration do HCOOH and the silver from Tollens' react? For the aldehydes it is 1:2, as RCHO/RCOOH exchanges 2e- and Ag+/Ag exchanges 1e-. I think that in this case it should be 1:1, as the oxidation state of C in formic acid is +2 so only one electron will be released.
What about HCHO? Will it react with in the ration 1:3?

Offline Borek

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Re: Tollens'+HCOOH
« Reply #1 on: December 07, 2012, 04:00:57 PM »
What are the final products? Have you tried to simply balance the reaction equation by half reaction method?
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Offline Babcock_Hall

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Re: Tollens'+HCOOH
« Reply #2 on: December 07, 2012, 04:59:58 PM »
The half-reaction method is obviously powerful.  However, I sometimes find in organic and biochemistry, one can take a simplified approach and assign oxidation numbers to carbon by O.N(C) = (# of bonds to O, N, or other electronegative atom) - (# of bonds to H).

Offline Rutherford

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Re: Tollens'+HCOOH
« Reply #3 on: December 08, 2012, 04:14:50 AM »
The problem was that I had in my mind an acid product with oxidation number +3  :-[.
Yes, I was talking about the simplified approach.
Thanks for the help.

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