INTRODUCTION In recent years a number of kinetic studies on oxidation reactions involving rare metals based oxidants and organic compounds have been made 1,2 , The oxidation reaction of carbohydrates is complex because of their multifunctional nature. Earlier 5,6 and recent 7 reviews on the subject are noteworthy. D-Galactose plays an important role in carbohydrate chemistry because it is a constituent of glycolipids and glycoproteins. Our interest 8-9 in the use of modified Cr(VI) reagents promoted us to investigate the oxidation of D-Galactose with PCC to throw light on the mechanistic aspects of the oxidation process. ORIENTAL JOURNAL OF CHEMISTRY www.orientjchem.org Est. 1984 An International Open Free Access, Peer Reviewed Research Journal ISSN: 0970-020 X CODEN: OJCHEG 2012, Vol. 28, No. (3): Pg. 1399-1402 Kinetics of Oxidation of D-Galactose by Pyridinium Chlorochromate J.V. SINGH¹*, ANUPAM AWASTHI¹, DIPTI², ASHISH TOMAR² and G.L. AGRAWAL³ 1 Department of Chemistry, Nehru College, Chhibramau - 209 721, India. 2 Department of Chemistry, Meerut College, Meerut - 250 001, India. 3 Department of Chemistry, Dr. H.S. Gour Vishwavidyalaya, Sagar - 470 003, India. *Corresponding author E-mail: jvsingh1@hotmail.com (Received: June 14, 2012; Accepted: July 10, 2012) ABSTRACT The oxidation kinetics of D-Galactose with pyridinium chlorochromate (PCC), have been studied in presence of perchloric acid. The reaction under pseudo-first order condition, is first order with respect to both the oxidant and the substrate. The reaction is markedly catalysed by H + ions and the effect of [NaClO 4 ] is negligible. A 1:1 stoichiometry is observed. Activation parameters have been computed by measuring the rates at different temperatures. A probable mechanism of the reaction is suggested. Key words: Oxidation, Kinetics, Mechanism, D-Galactose, Pyridinium chlorochromate (PCC). MATERIAL AND METHODS Pyridinium chlorochromate was synthesized by the reported procedure 10 . Aqueous solution of D-Galactose (Loba-chemie) was always freshly prepared. Perchloric acid and other chemicals (A.R., B.D.H.) were used as such without further purification. The reactions were performed under pseudo-first order conditions by keeping a large excess of D-Galactose with respect to PCC. Kinetic measurements were made using a systronics spectrophotometer 106 at 400 nm. The optical density was measured at various intervals of time.