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Selasa, 29 Januari 2008

Revision - Preparation of alkanes by Wurtz reaction

When an alkyl halide (usually bromide or iodide) is treated with sodium in dry ether, a symmetrical alkane containing both twice the number of carbon atoms of alkyl halide is obtained.

RX + 2Na + XR ---> R-R + 2NaX (catalyst in dry ether)

There is a possibility, in the reaction to use different alkyl halides instead of a single halide. If two different halides are taken with the aim of preparing an alkane with odd number of carbon atoms, a mixture of products is obtained in stead of a single alkane. This is because in this case three reactions takes place and three different products are obtained.

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