Question

What is nascent oxygen and how does it relate to potassium permanganate?

Answer 1

Oxygen gas is very important for human beings as the gas we inhale for living is oxygen gas there is no life possible without oxygen and the main source of oxygen is the process done by plants known as photosynthesis.

Complete answer:
Potassium permanganate is an inorganic compound having the chemical formula $KMn{{O}_{4}}$. It is composed of ${{K}^{+}}$ and $Mn{{O}_{4}}^{-}$. It is a purple-black crystalline solid that dissolves in water to give pink or purple solutions.
$KMn{{O}_{4}}$ is a strong oxidizing agent under any conditions but we get more electrons per $Mn{{O}_{4}}^{-}$ ion in acidic medium as compared to basic or neutral.
Nascent oxygen is defined as the atomic form of oxygen represented as [O] and it does not exist independently as a molecule. In chemical reactions nascent oxygen is produced from strong oxidizing agents like $KMn{{O}_{4}}$ and ${{K}_{2}}C{{r}_{2}}{{O}_{7}}$. When potassium permanganate reacts with ethanol then it releases nascent oxygen which can be defined as an atom of oxygen and while converting the ethanol turns into acetic acid. The reaction can be shown as follows:
${{K}_{2}}C{{r}_{2}}{{O}_{7}}+4{{H}_{2}}S{{O}_{4}}(dil)\to {{K}_{2}}S{{O}_{4}}+greenCr{{(S{{O}_{4}})}_{3}}+4{{H}_{2}}O+[O]$
Here we can see that when ${{K}_{2}}C{{r}_{2}}{{O}_{7}}$reacts with sulphuric acid then potassium permanganate along with nascent oxygen produces and other products like green color chromium sulphate and water is also produced.

Note:
Oxidizing power is the tendency of an element to accept electrons. The greater is its ability, greater will be its oxidizing power. Oxidizing power depends upon the effective nuclear charge it decreases down the group and increases across the period.