Electrochemical Generation and Use of Cobalt (III) Acetate

Abstract

Unlike manganese(III) acetate, which is commercially available and greatly used¹ as an oxidant with organic compounds, cobalt(III) acetate is not so readily available and has been less used as a routine laboratory oxidant. Cobalt(III) acetate is the more powerful oxidant and a comparative analysis² of their properties suggests that it has a potential as a laboratory reagent in addition to the established role in industrial processes involving homogeneous catalysis. The existing methods for preparation of cobalt(III) acetate either require the use of ozone³, peroxides⁴ or peracids⁵ or by use of oxygen as oxidant lead to solutions in which conversion of cobalt(II) acetate to cobalt(III) acetate is modest^4,6.