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Exercise · Q22

Q.Describe how cold, dilute alkaline KMnO4\text{KMnO}_4 (Baeyer's reagent) can be used as a test for unsaturation, and state what happens instead with hot, concentrated KMnO4\text{KMnO}_4.

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With a cold, dilute, alkaline solution of potassium permanganate, an alkene undergoes SYN addition of two hydroxyl groups, one to each double-bond carbon, converting the alkene into a 1,2-diol (vicinal glycol): RCH=CHR′+[O]+H2O→RCH(OH)–CH(OH)R′\text{RCH=CHR}' + [\text{O}] + \text{H}_2\text{O} \rightarrow \text{RCH(OH)--CH(OH)R}'. As the reaction proceeds, the reagent's own deep purple/pink colour fades and disappears, because the permanganate ion is itself reduced in the process; this visible colour change is used as a simple, fast qualitative test -- Baeyer's test -- to detect the presence of a carbon-carbon double (or triple) bond, since an alkane has no such reactive site and does not decolourise the reagent under these mild, cold conditions. Under much harsher conditions -- hot and CONCENTRATED KMnO4\text{KMnO}_4 -- the reaction does not stop at the diol stage but continues to oxidatively CLEAVE the double bond entirely, much as ozonolysis does: a terminal =CH2\text{=CH}_2 carbon is oxidised all the way to carbon dioxide, a $ …

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