Oxidizing agent reactant

Not so for synthesis in the chemical industry where a compound must be prepared not only on a large scale but at low cost There is a pronounced bias toward reactants and reagents that are both abundant and inexpensive The oxidizing agent of choice for example in the chemical industry is O2 and extensive research has been devoted to develop mg catalysts for preparing various compounds by air oxidation of readily available starting materials To illustrate air and ethylene are the reactants for the industrial preparation of both acetaldehyde and ethylene oxide Which of the two products is ob tamed depends on the catalyst employed... 

A thermal oxidizer is a chemical reactor in which the reaction is activated by heat and is characterized by a specific rate of reactant consumption. There are at least two chemical reactants, an oxidizing agent and a reducing agent. The rate of reaction is related both to the nature and to the concentration of reactants, and to the conditions of activation, ie, the temperature (activation), turbulence (mixing of reactants), and time of interaction. 

As expected, atomic O is a strong oxidizing agent and it is an important reactant in the chemistry of the upper atmosphere. Typical reactions are ... 

Toxicity. The peroxy acid is highly toxic and may cause death or permanent injury after very short exposure to small quants (Ref 12) Uses. Peroxyacetic acid is the most important epoxidation reagent used today because of its economical availability and ease of use with a wide variety of reactants (Ref 10). It also finds wide usage as an organic oxidizing agent (Ref 11) Refs 1) Beil 2, 169, (78), [174] [379 ... 

Other factors have been identified as rate controlling in other types of solid—solid interaction, and some of these are described in subsequent sections. These include, for example, the decomposition of a solid catalyzed by a (different) solid and rate processes in which one reactant is volatilized, e.g. reaction of carbon (-> C02) with a solid oxidizing agent. 

Other oxidizing agents may he used to degrade cyclobutadieneiron tricarbonyl in those cases in which the reactants or products are sensitive to the acidic ceric ammonium nitrate solutions, lead tetraacetate in pyridine can be used. 

However, unless the other reactant is a strong reducing agent, water acts as an oxidizing agent only at high temperatures, as in the re-forming reaction (Section 14.3). 

One spectacular example of the oxidizing ability of perchlorates is their use in the booster rockets of space shuttles. The solid propellant consists of aluminum powder (the fuel), ammonium perchlorate (the oxidizing agent as well as a fuel), and iron(III) oxide (the catalyst). These reactants are mixed into a liquid polymer, which sets to a solid inside the rocket shell. A variety of products can form when the mixture is ignited. One of the reactions is... 

Hazards arising from the oxidation of organic compounds are greater when the reactants are volatile, or present as a dust or an aerosol. Liquid oxygen and various concentrated acids, e.g. nitric, sulphuric or perchloric acid, and chromic acid are strong oxidizing agents. The use of perchloric acid or perchlorates has resulted in numerous explosions their use should be avoided when possible (refer to Table 6.5). 

The same situation is found in the oxidation of certain dissolved reducing agents in many cases these reactions occur only by reaction with oxidizing agents, not on anodic polarization of an electrode. Such behavior is observed primarily in systems with organic reactants, more rarely in systems with inorganic reactants. 

The chemical mechanism rests on the effect of intervening redox systems (see Section 13.6). Here intermediate reactants such as species on a cathode surface, species on an anode surface, or reducing and oxidizing agents in the solution layer next to the electrode are first produced electrochemicaUy from solution components. The further interaction of these reactants with the organic substance is purely chemical in character, for example, following a reaction... 

Chromate conversion coatings for aluminum are carried out in acidic solutions. These solutions usually contain one chromium salt, such as sodium chromate or chromic acid and a strong oxidizing agent such as hydrofluoric acid or nitric acid. The final film usually contains both products and reactants and water of hydration. Chromate films are formed by the chemical reaction of hexavalent chromium with a metal surface in the presence of accelerators such as cyanides, acetates, formates, sulfates, chlorides, fluorides, nitrates, phosphates, and sulfamates. 

Chemical oxidation typically involves reduction/oxidation (redox) reactions that chemically convert hazardous contaminants to nonhazardous or less toxic compounds that are more stable, less mobile, or inert. Redox reactions involve the transfer of electrons from one compound to another. Specifically, one reactant is oxidized (loses electrons) and one is reduced (gains electrons). The oxidizing agents... 

In every reaction in which the oxidation number of an element in one reactant (or more than one) goes up, an element in some reactant (or more than one) must go down in oxidation number. An increase in oxidation number is called an oxidation. A decrease in oxidation number is called a reduction. The term redox (the first letters of reduction and oxidation) is often used as a synonym for oxidation-reduction. The total change in oxidation number (change in each atom times number of atoms) must be the same in the oxidation as in the reduction, because the number of electrons transferred from one species must be the same as the number transferred to the other. The species that causes another to be reduced is called the reducing agent in the process, it is oxidized. The species that causes the oxidation is called the oxidizing agent in the process, it is reduced. 

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