I've just read this:
"Oxalic acid is sometimes produced by treating sucrose with nitric acid. I guess this also produces nitrites or nitroxides as a side product. I think the same procedure would work with pure glucose. This does, however, not necessarily correspond to the products in bacteria, as all the reactions there are enzyme catalyzed; from a biologic point of view, getting oxalic acid is probably disadvantageous, as the carbon is still not fully oxidized."
This is the non-balanced equation for the process mentioned above:
C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁ + HNO₃ = H₂C₂O₄ + H₂O
MY QUESTION IS: How can I notice that H₂C₂O₄ is not fully oxidised???
"Oxalic acid is sometimes produced by treating sucrose with nitric acid. I guess this also produces nitrites or nitroxides as a side product. I think the same procedure would work with pure glucose. This does, however, not necessarily correspond to the products in bacteria, as all the reactions there are enzyme catalyzed; from a biologic point of view, getting oxalic acid is probably disadvantageous, as the carbon is still not fully oxidized."
This is the non-balanced equation for the process mentioned above:
C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁ + HNO₃ = H₂C₂O₄ + H₂O
MY QUESTION IS: How can I notice that H₂C₂O₄ is not fully oxidised???
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Work out the double bond equivalents. If there are same number of double bonds as there are oxygen then it is fully oxidised. (unless you have a carboxylic acid in there).
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Your quotation compares HNO3 oxidation with bacterial oxidation. Bacteria would oxidize sugars to CO2 + H2O. Carbon is +4 in CO2 when it is fully oxidized. The oxidation number of C in H2C2O4 is +3, so it is not fully oxidized.