8.12 How do you count for the following observations?
(a) Though alkaline potassium permanganate and acidic potassium permanganate both are used as oxidants, yet in the manufacture of benzoic acid from toluene we use alcoholic potassium permanganate as an oxidant. Why ? Write a balanced redox equation for the reaction.
Answer(a)-
Alcohol and both are polar in nature and alcohol is homogenous to toluene because both are organic compounds. So the reaction is faster in the homogenous medium rather than heterogeneous medium. And hence all the compounds react at a faster rate.
Chemical equation-