tertiary alcohol oxidation impossible?

[cc609]

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Can tertiary alcohols not be able to be oxidized by anything? even KMnO4, and like heat or something?
I understand that tehy don't have hydrogens but i thought under certain conditions they could to a ketone? Confused!! thank you!

 

[hope_to_match]

Can tertiary alcohols not be able to be oxidized by anything? even KMnO4, and like heat or something?
I understand that tehy don't have hydrogens but i thought under certain conditions they could to a ketone? Confused!! thank you!

i don't believe they can. think about it...if you were to form a ketone from tertiary alcohol than you would break the octet rule on that tertiary carbon.

 

[bpester]

A tertiary alcohol has 3 other bonds in addition to the carbon-alcohol bond. If this bond were to be oxidized to a ketone, you'd end up with a carbon with 5 bonds/10 shared electrons. Excluding some rare occasions, you can't violate the octet rule (no more than 8 valence electrons), so an oxidation of a tertiary alcohol isn't possible.