Uses of Potassium Dichromate

Potassium dichromate finds a range of important practical applications across industry and analytical chemistry, four of which are highlighted in the chapter. First and most generally, it serves as a strong oxidising agent in numerous laboratory and industrial contexts, wherever a reliable, well-characterised, acidic-medium oxidant is required. Second, it is used in the dyeing and printing industry, where its oxidising and mordanting properties assist in fixing certain dyes onto textile fibres. Third, it is used in leather tanneries specifically for chrome tanning, a process in which chromium compounds cross-link the collagen protein fibres of animal hide, converting the raw hide into durable, rot-resistant leather -- chrome tanning using chromium(III) salts (themselves often generated by reduction of dichromate) is, even today, the dominant commercial tanning method worldwide. Fourth, and of particular importance to the analytical chemistry developed in section 4.4.2.4, potassium dichromate is extensively used in quantitative v …