Question

What is dehydration of alcohol?

Answer 1

Definition

• Dehydrogenation or dehydration of alcohols is defined as the process that how alcohol reacts with protic acids and it loses one molecule of water and forms alkenes.

Applications

• Dehydrogenation is a significant process in petroleum chemistry
• It converts inert alkanes into olefins and aromatic compounds, which serve as starting points for other functional groups.
• Dehydrogenation is a highly endothermic reaction with a limited reaction to equilibrium.

Example

• ${\mathrm{CH}}_3-{\mathrm{CH}}_2\mathrm{OH}\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)\stackrel{}{\to }{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{C}={\mathrm{CH}}_2\left(\mathrm{s}\right)+{\mathrm{H}}_2\mathrm{O}\left(\mathrm{aq}\right)$

More about dehydration of alcohols

• Dehydration of alcohols can lead to the formation of alkene and ethers at different temperatures.
• Dehydration of alcohol proceeds through the formation of carbonium ion.
• The carbonium ion can lose a proton to form alkene.
• The carbonium ion may be attacked by a fresh molecule of alcohol and form an oxonium ion which can then lose a proton to form ether.