Kinetics and Mechanism of Oxidation of 1-Phenylsemicarbazide by Peroxydisulphate

Kinetics of oxidation of 1-phenylsemicarbazide (PSC) by peroxydisulphate ion (PDS) have been carried out where by the pseudo first order condition was verified at large excess of PDS concentration. The rate of the reaction was followed spectrophotometrically, The stoichiometry was found to be 1:1 where 1-phenylazoformamide is the oxidation product. The effect of acidity on the rate of oxidation was investigated for different temperatures. The parameters of activation ΔG*, ΔH* and ΔS* were computed for both hydrogen ion depedent and hydrogen ion independent reaction pathes. A free radical mechanism was proposed.