The chlorite-periodate reaction has been studied spectrophotometrically in acidic medium at 25.0 +/- 0.1 degrees C, monitoring the absorbance at 400 nm in acetate/acetic acid buffer at constant ionic strength (I = 0.5 M). We have shown that periodate was exclusively reduced to iodate, but chlorite ion was oxidized to chlorate and chlorine dioxide via branching pathways. The stoichiometry of the reaction can be described as a linear combination of two limiting stoichiometries under our experimental conditions. Detailed initial rate studies have clearly revealed that the formal kinetic orders of hydrogen ion, chlorite ion, and periodate ion are all strictly one, establishing an empirical rate law to be d[ClO2]/dt = k(obs)[ClO2-] [IO4-] [H+], where the apparent rate coefficient (k(obs)) was found to be 70 +/- 13 M-2 s(-1). On the basis of the experiments, a simple four-step kinetic model with three fitted kinetic parameters is proposed by nonlinear parameter estimation. The reaction was found to proceed via a parallel oxygen transfer reaction leading to the exclusive formation of chlorate and iodate as well as via the formation of a short-lived key intermediate OClOIO3 followed by its further transformations by a sequence of branching pathways.