Question

Give the balanced equation for the laboratory preparation of a saturated hydrocarbon from iodomethane

Answer 1

Laboratory preparation of a saturated hydrocarbon from iodomethane

• Haloalkanes react with nascent hydrogen to produce alkanes. It is a reduction reaction. However, it is difficult to accomplish in laboratory conditions.
• To overcome that, Iodomethane$\left(C{H}_{3}I\right)$ is treated with sodium in presence of dry ether to produce ethane$\left(C_2{H}_6\right)$.
• This reaction is named Wurtz reaction. The chemical equation is:

$\underset{\left(\mathrm{Iodomethane}\right)}{2{\mathrm{CH}}_3\mathrm{I}\left(\mathrm{g}\right)}+\underset{\left(\mathrm{Sodium}\right)}{2\mathrm{Na}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)}\stackrel{\mathrm{dry}\mathrm{ether}}{\to }\underset{\left(\mathrm{Ethane}\right)}{{\mathrm{H}}_3\mathrm{C}-{\mathrm{CH}}_3\left(\mathrm{g}\right)}+\underset{(\mathrm{Sodium}\mathrm{iodide})}{2\mathrm{NaI}\left(\mathrm{s}\right)}$