Question

How will you convert ethyl chloride into
(i) Ethane
(ii) n-butane

Answer 1

Hint: A lot of applications are there for alkyl halides. Generally alkyl halides react with alcoholic KOH and produce alkenes and by using alkyl halides we can prepare higher alkanes through Wurtz reaction using sodium metal.

Complete step by step solution:
- In the question it asked to prepare ethane and n-butane from ethyl chloride.
(i) Ethane from ethyl chloride.
- Preparation of ethane from ethyl chloride is a two-step process.
- The reaction of ethyl chloride with alcoholic KOH produces an alkene in the first step and it is as follows. It is an example for elimination reaction.
(a).

- The formed ethylene undergoes reduction reaction in presence of Nickel catalyst gives ethane as the product in the second step.
(b).

(ii) n-butane from ethyl chloride.
- Ethyl chloride reacts with sodium metal and forms a higher alkane and it is as follows.

- In the above reaction two moles of Ethyl chloride react with sodium metal and form one moles of n-butane and two moles of sodium chloride as the products.
- The above reaction is called Wurtz reaction.
- The reaction occurs in the presence of sodium metal.
- Wurtz reaction is one of the best methods to prepare higher alkanes from alkyl halides.

Note: Alkyl halides have a lot of applications in organic chemistry. By using alkyl halides we can prepare alkanes that have the same number of carbon atoms and we can prepare higher alkanes using sodium metal through Wurtz reaction.