\(\underset{\text{Ethanoic acid}}{CH _{3} COOH} \xrightarrow{\text { LiAlH }_{4} / \text { ether }} \underset{\text{Ethanol}}{CH _{3} CH _{2} OH}\)
The reagent that can convert acetic acid (\({CH_3COOH}\)) to ethanol (\({CH_3CH_2OH}\)) is a reducing agent. One commonly used reducing agent for this conversion is lithium aluminum hydride (\({LiAlH_4}\)) or sodium borohydride (\({NaBH_4}\)).
The reaction with lithium aluminum hydride (\({LiAlH_4}\)) can be represented as follows:
\({CH_3COOH}+{4LiAlH_4}\rightarrow{CH_3CH_2OH}+{Al(OH)_3}+{4LiH}\)
This reaction reduces the carboxylic acid functional group (\({COOH}\)) of acetic acid to an alcohol functional group (\({CH_3CH_2OH}\)) in ethanol.
It's important to note that this reaction is typically carried out under specific conditions, and caution should be exercised when working with reactive chemical reagents.
The alkali metal with the lowest E M- M+ (V) is X and the alkali metal with highest E M- M+ is Y. Then X and Y are respectively:
In organic chemistry, an alkane, or paraffin (a historical trivial name that also has other meanings), is an acyclic saturated hydrocarbon. In other words, an alkane consists of hydrogen and carbon atoms arranged in a tree structure in which all the carbon-carbon bonds are single. Alkanes have the general chemical formula CnH2n+2. The alkanes range in complexity from the simplest case of methane (CH4), where n = 1 (sometimes called the parent molecule), to arbitrarily large and complex molecules, like pentacontane (C50H102) or 6-ethyl-2-methyl-5-(1-methylethyl) octane, an isomer of tetradecane (C14H30).
Due to very little difference of electronegativity between carbon and hydrogen and covalent nature of C-C bond or C-H bond, alkanes are generally non-polar molecules.As we generally observe, polar molecules are soluble in polar solvents whereas non-polar molecules are soluble in non-polar solvents. Hence, alkanes are hydrophobic in nature that is, alkanes are insoluble in water.
As the intermolecular Van Der Waals forces increase with the increase of the molecular size or the surface area of the molecule we observe:The straight-chain alkanes are observed to have a higher boiling point in comparison to their structural isomers.
The melting point of alkanes follow the same trend as their boiling point that is, it increases with increase in molecular weight.