Question

How will you carry out the following conversions?
(i) Ethene to acetic acid
(ii) Ethane to acetic acid

Answer 1

(i) Ethene to acetic acid:
​$\underset{\mathrm{Ethene}}{C_2{H}_4}+H_{2}O\stackrel{H_2{\mathrm{SO}}_4}{\to }\underset{\mathrm{Ethanol}}{C_2{H}_5\mathrm{OH}}\underset{}{\overset{K_2{\mathrm{Cr}}_2{O}_7/H^{+}}{\to }}\underset{\mathrm{Acetaaldehyde}}{{\mathrm{CH}}_3\mathrm{CHO}}\stackrel{K_2{\mathrm{Cr}}_2{O}_7/H^{+}}{\to }\underset{\mathrm{Acetic}\mathrm{acid}}{{\mathrm{CH}}_3\mathrm{COOH}}$

(ii) Ethane to acetic acid:
​$\underset{\mathrm{Ethane}}{C_2{H}_6}+O_2\stackrel{\mathrm{MoO}/\Delta }{\to }\underset{\mathrm{Acetaaldehyde}}{{\mathrm{CH}}_3\mathrm{CHO}}\stackrel{K_2{\mathrm{Cr}}_2{O}_7/H^{+}}{\to }\underset{\mathrm{Acetic}\mathrm{acid}}{{\mathrm{CH}}_3\mathrm{COOH}}$