Oxidation of bis(triethylgermyl)mercury in the presence of tert-butyl alcohol

The oxidation of bis(triethylgermyl)mercury by oxygen in the presence of tert-butyl alcohol has been investigated. It has been shown that the dependence of the rate of oxidation on the value of n ¹ for tert-butyl alcohol within the range n = 0–12 is similar to that for unassociated ligand-catalysts. On increasing n further (from 12 to 60) increasing association of the alcohol causes a drastic increase in the reaction rate relative to the increase in n due to the higher catalytic activity of the high molecular weight associated species.