The oxidation of parathion to paraoxon in aqueous media by silver oxide (AgO).

The present preliminary report clearly justifies more detailed examinations of this previously unreported oxidative technique. AgO may prove to be a general reagent for oxidizing thiono-organophosphorus pesticides to their phosphates which are often more potent ChE inhibitors than the parent compounds; many other oxidants have been utilized for this purpose with reported conversion efficiencies ranging from a few percent to near quantitative, usually on a macro-scale; most micro methods in the literature are of very low efficiencies. Whether AgO will also oxidize any of the thiolo-organophosphorus compounds to their phosphates is not yet established, except for negative results with Thimet.