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Q.(i) An alkene 'A' on ozonolysis gives a mixture of ethanal and pentan-3-one. Write the structure and IUPAC name of 'A'.

(ii) Why is Wurtz reaction not preferred for the preparation of alkanes containing odd number of carbon atoms? OR Write chemical equations for the combustion reactions of the following hydrocarbons: (A) Butane (B) Pentene (C) Hexyne (D) Toluene.
Jammu Kashmir JkboseJammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (Class 11) 2019Subjective· 5mImportance★★★★★
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(i) Reassembling the ozonolysis fragments of ethanal and pentan-3-one gives the alkene 3-ethylpent-2-ene. (ii) Wurtz reaction couples two identical alkyl halides, which structurally always produces an even-carbon alkane; making an odd-carbon alkane needs two different halides, which gives an unavoidable statistical mixture of three products.

(i) Structure and IUPAC name of alkene A:

Ozonolysis of an alkene cleaves the C=C double bond and replaces each carbon of the double bond with a C=O (carbonyl) group, giving two carbonyl compounds. To find the original alkene, we reverse this: join the two carbonyl carbons back together with a double bond, removing the two oxygens.

  • Ethanal is CH3-CHO. Removing the oxygen from its carbonyl carbon leaves the fragment CH3-CH= .
  • Pentan-3-one is CH3-CH2-CO-CH2-CH3 (a symmetrical ketone with the carbonyl at C3, bonded to two ethyl groups). Removing the oxygen from its carbonyl carbon leaves the fragment =C(CH2CH3)2 .

Joining these two fragments with a double bond gives:

CH3-CH=C(CH2CH3)2

Numbering the longest chain containing the double bond (5 carbons, taking one of the ethyl groups as part of the main chain): C1(CH3)-C2(=CH)-C3(=C, bearing an ethyl substituent)-C4(CH2)-C5(CH3). This is pentene with the double bond starting at C2 and an ethyl substituent at C3.

IUPAC name: 3-ethylpent-2-ene.

Check: ozonolysis of 3-ethylpent-2-ene cleaves the C2=C3 bond. The C2 side (CH3-CH=) becomes CH3-CHO (ethanal); the C3 side (=C bonded to an ethyl substituent and to a -CH2CH3 continuation of the main chain, i.e. bonded to two ethyl groups overall) becomes (C2H5)2C=O, which is pentan-3-one. This matches the given products, confirming the structure.

(ii) Why Wurtz reaction is not preferred for odd-carbon alkanes:

The Wurtz reaction is: 2 R-X + 2Na -> R-R + 2NaX (dry ether, via a free-radical coupling mechanism). When a single alkyl halide R-X is used, the product R-R always has double the number of carbon atoms of R, so the product alkane always has an EVEN number of carbon atoms.

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