Talk:Perchlorate

PEPCON

I rm "several disasters"; no source for that. I don't doubt there have been others and when I see a cite, I'll entertain a mention. Also general cleanup of the PEPCON mention.

Fe(II) perchlorate?

@Shinkolobwe:. I am trying to figure out the recent emphasis on ferrous perchlorate. Are we trying to teach readers how to use the Nernst equation to predict stabilities? Seems like WP:OR and WP:NOTTEXTBOOK. Is there some aspect of ferrous perchlorate that is notable? The kinetic inertness of perchlorate as an oxidant is an old and well investigated story. I do not recall any problems or even interesting results with ferrous perchlorate. WebElements is a poor source of information. --Smokefoot (talk) 12:31, 21 August 2024 (UTC)

@Smokefoot: I understand your remarks and your deletion edition of a too long development I have made on the stability of Fe²⁺ in solution in which perchlorate is added as a background electrolyte. Even, if it is a question resolved since a long time, I would appreciate to find here the explanation based on accessible sources. I was to the point to publicly ask the question here on the discussion page, but you have reacted before I had the time to do it. Ferrous perchlorate is certainly not a notable compound, but the fact that one can use without problem perchlorate as a background electrolyte to study the solubility of various Fe²⁺ compounds is certainly worth it. My aim, here, was not to add original developments, nor textbook explanations to this page, but to help to provide understandable explanations to a not so trivial question which can still puzzle many persons in the lab with different background and nobody knowing a good and convincing explanation, except a vague kinetics reason. So, if you could help, at least providing good and accessible sources, it would be highly appreciated and I think many readers will be grateful. In advance, thank you for your support if you wish to contribute to better explain this question. With kind regards, Shinkolobwe (talk) 13:28, 21 August 2024 (UTC)

@Shinkolobwe: We are not in the explaining business. We present facts. We avoid explanations or "helping people understand".

If you want good sources, get textbooks on inorganic chemistry. Some are on-line. Greenwood and Earnshaw's Chemistry of the Elements gives an overview of descriptive and applications. It seems that each editor in this sphere has their favorite - Housecroft has one popular textbook. Shriver and Atkins are lead authors on another.

Lots of old inorganic chemists (like Nobelist Taube), even before my times, wrestled with perchlorate reduction. The problem seems to be that the usual reductants (ferrous, chromous) do not like to make oxo's from the breakup of M-O-ClO3. Re and Mo are fine with making M≡O, so they work fine. Feel free to ask questions. --Smokefoot (talk) 13:46, 21 August 2024 (UTC)

@Smokefoot: Thank you for your rapid answer and the references. In the meantime, I also looked at Cotton and Wilkinson (1999). Advanced Inorganic Chemistry. 6th ed, Wiley, see page 581 for perchlorate. The redox inertness of perchlorate is mentioned there as a fact, also supported by a table with standard redox potentials, but I could not find any explanations, or reasons, dealing with the kinetics limitations of the ferrous ions oxidation by the perchlorate anions. Thanks for your hint about the possible reaction mechanism. Best regards, Shinkolobwe (talk) 14:29, 21 August 2024 (UTC)