How do you account for the following observations ?
Though alkaline potassium permanganate and acidic potassium permanganate both are used as oxidants, yet in the manufacture of benzoic acid from toluene we use alcoholic potassium permanganate as an oxidant. Why? Write a balanced redox equation for the reaction.

Explanation

If toluene is oxidised by using alkaline or acidic `KMnO_(4)`, it is very hard to control the oxidation. Because it may lead to many side reactions and number of other products along with the main product benzoic acid. Hence it is preferred to use alcoholic `KMnO_(4)` as an oxidant in the place of alkaline or acidic `KMnO_(4)`. The redox reactins are as follows:
`underset(underset(("Average O.S of " C= -(8)/(7)))("Toluene"))(C_(6)H_(5)CH_(3)) + overset(+7)(2KMnO_(4))rarr 2KOH + overset(+4)(2MnO_(2)) + underset(underset(("Average O.S of " C= -(2)/(7)))("Benzoic acid"))(C_(6)H_(5)COOH)`