Fundamentals of Conservation Science: Induction Time and the Autoxidation of Organic Compounds

Oxidation is perhaps the fundamental cause of the deterioration of organic substances. It is therefore appropriate to consider the basic mechanism of oxidation of organic compounds in detail. As a result of the fundamental investigations by Bolland, Gee, and others beginning in the late 1940' s, we are able to make a number of useful generalizations regarding a type of reaction of organic compounds known as auto-oxidation, or autoxidation, a process characterized by the fact that the rate of oxygen consumption increases in time up to a point at which a maximum-rate is attained, after which it may decrease as the mor )readily oxidized sites within the molecules become fully reactedd'.