Kinetics of oxidative coupling of phenols: Oxidation of naphthols by alkaline hexacyanoferrate (III)

The oxidation of naphthols by alkaline hexacyanoferrate(III), at constant ionic strength, gave coupled products. The rate of the reaction was dependent on the first powers of the concentrations of substrate, oxidant, and alkali. The activation energies were 31.8 and 34.5 kJ/mol for α naphthol and β naphthol, respectively. The reaction pathway was via the formation of a radical intermediate, which was detected by electron spin resonance spectroscopy.