Production of Acetone By Oxidation

1. Potassium Dichromate

Isopropyl alcohol reacts with potassium dichromate in the presence of an acid (Sulphuric
acid) in a pseudo-first order reaction. The pseudo-first order constants are independent of the
concentration of the oxidant. The mechanism involves the protonated alcohol and chromate
ion as the reactants chromate ester being an intermediate complex. The mechanism of the
reaction can be summarized by the figure below.

Fig 1

2. Potassium Permanganate

Acetone can be produced from the oxidation of isopropyl alcohol by permanganate ion in the
presence of an acid (Sulphuric acid) as shown in the chemical reaction equation below.

2𝑀𝑛𝑂4− + 5𝐶𝐻3 𝐶𝐻𝑂𝐻𝐶𝐻3 + 6𝐻3 𝑂+ → 2𝑀𝑛2+ + 5𝐶𝐻3 𝐶𝑂𝐶𝐻3 + 14𝐻2 𝑂

As can be seen from the equation the oxidation number of the manganese ion decreases
implying that the manganese ion is reduced. The central carbon in isopropyl alcohol is
oxidised since its oxidation number increases to produce acetone.
3. Zeolites

Acetone can be produced from the partial oxidation of isopropyl alcohol using modified
metal-zeolite catalysts in the presence of molecular oxygen (Aliyev et al., 2019). The
reaction is followed by both oxidation and dehydration with forming carbon dioxide and
propylene in that respect. The reaction yield is affected by various factors which include
temperature, contact time, concentrations, molar ratio of reactants and the distribution of
acid sites on the catalyst surface. Literature reports that isopropyl alcohol oxidation over
modified zeolite NaY can achieve high selectivity on acetone (97.0%) but only a yield of
6.0%.
Aliyev, A., Safarov, A., Shabanova, Z., 2019. Oxidative conversion of isopropyl alcohol to
acetone over modified zeolite catalysts. Acad. Rom. 64, 291–297.
doi:10.33224/rrch.2019.64.4.01