Properties
Permanganates(VII) are salts of permanganic acid. Permanganate(VII) is a strong oxidizer, and similar to perchlorate. It is therefore in common use in qualitative analysis that involves redox reactions (permanganometry). Besides this, it is stable.
It is a useful reagent, though with organic compounds, not very selective.
Manganates(VII) are not very stable thermally. For instance, potassium permanganate decomposes at 230 °C to potassium manganate and manganese dioxide, releasing oxygen gas:
- 2 KMnO4 → K2MnO4 + MnO2 + O2
A permanganate can oxidize an amine to a nitro compound, an alcohol to a ketone, an aldehyde to a carboxylic acid, a terminal alkene to a carboxylic acid, oxalic acid to carbon dioxide, and an alkene to a diol. This list is not exhaustive.
In alkene oxidations one intermediate is a cyclic Mn(V) species:
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