Question

How will you carry out the following conversions?
(i) Ethanol to ethene
(ii) Bromoethane to ethanol

Answer 1

(i) Ethanol reacts with concentrated sulphuric acid at 170^oC and gives ethene. The reaction is as follows: ​

​$\underset{\mathrm{Ethanol}}{{\mathrm{C}}_2{\mathrm{H}}_5\mathrm{OH}}\underset{170°\mathrm{C}}{\overset{\mathrm{Conc}.{\mathrm{H}}_2{\mathrm{SO}}_4}{\to }}\underset{\mathrm{Ethene}}{{\mathrm{CH}}_2={\mathrm{CH}}_2}+{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}$

(ii) Bromoethane reacts with dilute potassium hydroxide to form ethanol and potassium bromide. The reaction is as follows:

$\underset{\mathrm{Bromoethane}}{{\mathrm{C}}_2{\mathrm{H}}_5\mathrm{Br}}+\underset{\mathrm{Aueous}}{\mathrm{KOH}}\to \underset{\mathrm{Ethanol}}{{\mathrm{C}}_2{\mathrm{H}}_5\mathrm{OH}}+\mathrm{KBr}$