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Explain (a) Wurtz reaction and (b) Friedel- Craft’s alkylation with one example for each of them.

Explain (a) Wurtz reaction and (b) Friedel- Craft’s alkylation with one example for each of them.

Grade:upto college level

1 Answers

Gaurav
askIITians Faculty 164 Points
9 years ago
Hello Student

Wurtz reaction :

An alkyl halide on Wurtz reaction leads to the formation of symmetrical alkane having an even number of carbon atoms.Two different alkyl halides, on Wurtz reaction give all possible alkanes.
CH3X + Na + C2H5X → CH3CH2CH3+ CH3CH3+ CH3CH2CH2CH3

The different involved are steps are:

CH3X + 2Na + C2H5X → CH3CH2CH3+ 2NaX

CH3X + 2Na + C2H5X →CH3CH3+ 2NaX

C2H5X + 2Na + C2H5X → C2H5C2H5+ 2NaX

The separation of mixture into individual members is not easy because their boiling points are near to each other and thus Wurtz reaction is not suitable for the synthesis of alkanes containing odd number of carbon atoms.
When Zn is used in Wurtz reaction in place of Na, the reaction is named as Frankland method.

Limitations of Wurtz reaction :

a.Methane can not be obtained by this method
b.The reaction fails in case of tertiary halides.

Friedel- Craft’s alkylation

255-241_friede2.gif

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