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Write Brief Answer · Q40

Q.How will you convert ethyl chloride in to

i) ethane
ii) n-butane
Puducherry TnboardTextbookSubjectiveImportance★★★★★
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Step 1 (to ethane). Ethyl chloride, CH3CH2Cl, is reduced with nascent hydrogen -- generated in situ from zinc and dilute HCl (Zn/HCl), which is one of the standard nascent-hydrogen sources used for reducing haloalkanes in this chapter -- simply replacing the -Cl with an -H: CH3CH2Cl + [H] --Zn/HCl--> CH3-CH3 (ethane) + HCl.

Step 2 (to n-butane). Treat ethyl chloride with sodium metal in dry ether -- the Wurtz reaction -- which couples two molecules of the haloalkane, forming a new C-C bond exactly where each molecule's C-Cl bond used to be, and doubling the carbon count: 2 CH3CH2Cl + 2Na --dry ether--> CH3CH2-CH2CH3 (n-butane) + 2NaCl. …

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