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Why Sulfuric acid? - Alcohol Oxidation

Why is dilute sulfuric acid used along side potassium dichromate in the oxidation of alcohols?
K2Cr2O7 is just used because its a useful oxidising agent but why does the sulfuric acid need to be used?
Also learnt that today and our teacher said that you can't use HCl and that "we'll find out next year." So I assume it's part of the Chemistry Year 2 Spec.

My educated guess would be that H2SO4 is diprotic compared to HCl which is monoprotic. It's probably to do with H+ ions.
(edited 8 years ago)
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John-Alejo
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Original post by Billy_Boi
Also learnt that today and our teacher said that you can't use HCl and that "we'll find out next year." So I assume it's part of the Chemistry Year 2 Spec.

My educated guess would be that H2SO4 is diprotic compared to HCl which is monoprotic. It's probably to do with H+ ions.


Yeah I'm thinking that too; H+ ions give the solution acidity but why is this required?

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